<span>The CIS export market for finished long products is still seeing the downward movement. Demand from foreign consumers has been slack for two months. Therefore, suppliers have failed to hold their offers and put them down when making deals. However, considering that buyers from North and West Africa, as well as the Middle East have refrained from purchases for a long time, sellers hope to make profit in May, when demand for construction steel is expected to recover. <br> At present only sellers who work at Black Sea ports are active, whereas suppliers in the Caspian and Far Eastern regions stay silent. Turkish exporters have become less flexible after signing new contracts for scrap. Whereas at the beginning of the week some plants were ready to sell at $640/t FOB, now $650/t FOB is the lowest acceptable level. However, quotations of wire rod from Turkish suppliers have slipped by $15/t in a week, to $675-690/t FOB. <br> Ukrainian sellers have been forced to push down rebar and wire rod offers to Middle Eastern buyers by EUR 5-10/t too. Still, producers refuse to sell wire rod at $690/t FOB, preferring to stockpile the material if there is a lack of orders. <br> Thus, BMZ has reportedly almost filled its May order books, having pared $10/t from rebar offers over a week. Yet, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih confirms no sales of the product yet. <br> Exporters have mostly cut their quotations also to EU consumers. Currency fluctuations keep playing into their hands’, making long product prices in euro terms look more attractive week after week. However, demand in the EU remains sluggish; thus, only sales of small lots of wire rod to Romania are reported. <br> Export prices in the structurals segment have dipped too. In particular, Metinvest International S.A. and Evraz Holding have cut $15-35/t from their offers of May production in a month. <br> (Source: <a href="http://www.metalexpert-group.com/"><span><u><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">www.metalexpert-group.com</font></u></span></a>)</span>