<span>As expected, Turkish longs exporters have failed to keep prices up amid weak buying activity abroad and few deals for scrap. Besides, local buyers are not supporting suppliers any more, though prices to them are still higher than to foreign buyers. Yet, some producers are in no hurry to follow the downward trend, with their July order book almost full. Thus, having no urgent need to sell, they have withdrawn from the market, waiting for the upturn in demand and prices in July, before Ramadan. <br> As a result, in a week export quotations of July production of rebar have lost $10-15/t, and fell to $725-740/t FOB. Whereas last week prices were unacceptable to most consumers, by now demand for import products has increased, though contracts are still rare. In particular, offers of rebar to UAE are coming at $740/t C&F theoretical weight ($725/t FOB actual weight), while domestic quotations are by $5-20/t higher. Thus, suppliers will be able to sell to this destination if they make more reductions, taking into account a shortage of rebar in the domestic market. Demand for finished products in Saudi Arabia remains strong thanks to many construction projects; yet, offers of domestic producers are more attractive than those of foreign sellers. It will be hard for Turkish suppliers to sell the material to Iraqi customers even at lower prices, since there is stiff competition with Ukrainian exporters. <br> So far Egypt remains the only active sales market, where the latest deals for Turkish rebar have been reportedly closed at $745/t C&F Aleksandria. Besides, Metal Expert learns about an offer of 40,000 t of the material at $740/t C&F. <br> In the wire rod segment supply has decreased even more this week, as some sellers have redirected their material to the domestic market, where prices are still at least by $35/t higher, or temporarily left the market, having sold out August production. Nevertheless, the rest of suppliers have put export quotations of mesh-quality material down by $15-20/t in a week. <br> Sellers of August casting of semis have cut offers by $15/t over the period under review on tough competition with CIS distributors, so their prices have become attractive in the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, they have again managed to sell small quantities of billet to Egypt, where there has been undersupply of the material since early June. At the same time billet from Ukraine to Turkey is available at an average of $690-695/t C&F July production, which is only by $35-45/t lower than export quotations of local rebar and, thus, is not attractive for re-rollers. <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>