In the Iraqi longs market, demand is rather moderate both from end users and stockists. In this situation, stockists prefer to maintain their inventories at optimal levels. Iraqi trading companies show interest both in domestic and foreign products, prices for which began to move up, reflecting the increases in their quotations to some extent.
As a result, prices for rebar from local producer Erbil Steel have risen by $10/t in two weeks.
At the same time, Ukrainian supplier raised quotations by as much as $20-25/t in the middle of the week. Now its offers are by $25/t higher than prices for Turkish longs, which have not changed over the same period but increased by $10/t in a week. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the week May output of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih changed hands at much lower levels of $750/t CPT Baghdad (20,000 t). So, current offers of Ukrainian rebar are so far unacceptable for Iraqi customers, taking into account the fact that stockists’ prices are by $5-10/t lower. Local customers started to purchase small lots of Turkish longs (May production) at $755-765/t CPT Baghdad realizing that the upward trend will persist in the future. Besides, long products are available in the stockist market at prices by $15/t higher.
( source: www.metalexpert-group.com )