The CIS export market for finished long products remains quiet. Sellers at the Azov-Black Sea ports have closed May order books and stay inactive, monitoring the market and getting ready to offer June production in early May. CIS suppliers are expected to follow Turkish exporters, who have increased rebar and wire rod prices by $20/t in a week, to $680-690/t FOB and $710-720/t FOB respectively. The upturn in the billet segment will be another reason behind the rise in CIS longs prices.
Thus, demand for wire rod being steady, offers of Ukrainian material are likely to at least catch up with Turkish quotations. However, producers will hardly push through a big increase in view of slack demand for rebar. Yet, offers of the product are predicted to reach $660-680/t FOB.
Demand for long products in the Far Eastern market is still sluggish. After Evraz Holding shipped wire rod at $685/t FOB ($710/t C&F) to SE Asia in the first half of April, no deals have been confirmed ever since. Nominal prices have stayed at $695/t FOB for two weeks already; still, customers do not want to buy at this level. Thus, Evraz Holding is not being persistent in selling its wire rod to Asian consumers, as it may switch to other sales destinations (to Central Asia, in particular, where they can sell at prices comparable to $730-740/t C&F SE Asia). No sales of the material have been reported from Amurmetal either. Bids from buyers are coming at $650-660/t FOB, which is unacceptable to the supplier.
( Source: www.metalexpert-group.com )