US imported rebar prices continued to rise approaching the week's end in line with soaring Turkish offers.
Offers out of Turkey have been on a run this week and showed little sign of slowing, market sources said Friday. A number of Turkey's largest longs makers increased domestic and rebar and wire rod list prices this week, reflecting the ongoing rising trend in imported scrap and billet prices.
Platts assessed Turkish export rebar at $432/mt on Friday, a $32/mt jump from Monday.
"You can almost anticipate without a doubt that there's going to be another increase the way the market has been going," said one US-based trader.
Turkey's major integrated longs producer, Kardemir, which closed its rebar and billet sales as of April 4, was expected to return to the market with higher pricing in the coming days, according to sources.
"I think the mills are looking to see where scrap settles, but there's almost no question that prices will be going up," the trader said.
He put current Turkish offers into the Gulf above $440/mt CFR ($404/st CIF)while a second trader said offers as high as $460/CFR ($423/CIF) had been quoted Friday.
Platts raised its US rebar import price assessment to $404-$413/st CIF Houston on Friday, up from $386-$395/st CIF.
The price increase on Turkish rebar seems to have legs, but it's keeping buying light, the second trader said.
"At this level I can only buy it if I know I can sell it," he said. "I'm not going to buy at $460/mt CFR and put it in inventory."
Nobody wants to be caught with too much material on hand, the first trader agreed.
"Just as quickly as prices are going up, they could go back down," he said.
