Polish mills’ rebar offers were 50-60 zloty ($12-15) per tonne higher compared with last week, when the main offer level was at 2,700 zloty per tonne CPT, sources told Fastmarkets.
Market participants indicated tradeable price levels in the range of 2,700-2,756 zloty per tonne.
Some deals were heard at 2,650 zloty per tonne CPT and 2,680 zloty per tonne CPT for large volumes of 2,000 tonnes and 3,000 tonnes respectively.
These price levels were not included in the assessment because they do not comply with Fastmarkets’ applied methodology.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, cpt Poland was at 2,700-2,756 zloty per tonne on Friday, an increase of 50-56 zloty per tonne from 2,650-2,700 zloty per tonne one week prior.
“The main reason for this price increase is the weaker Polish zloty. The currency fluctuations made imports more expensive and local producers also changed their prices promptly,” one distributor source told Fastmarkets.
“The zloty is changing a lot [recently] and [this] makes the difference [in offer prices],” a seller source said.
According to Oanda.com, the Polish currency was trading at 4.34 zloty to €1 on Friday June 14. This compares with 4.31 zloty on Monday and 4.27 zloty to €1 at the start of the month.
Overall demand for rebar in Poland remained weak, with the exception of the cut-and-bend sector, the distributor source noted.
“Deals are now quite few because mills sold out their material for June delivery,” a consumer source told Fastmarkets.
Although trading has been more active recently, according to the seller source.
Import offers from Germany were heard at €630 ($683) per tonne delivered Poland, which is €10-15 per tonne higher compared with the end of May.
Italian material was heard offered at €635 per tonne DAP Poland.
But these prices are too close to local levels, making such import offers unattractive, according to the distributor source.
Views about the future direction of the Polish rebar market were mixed.
The distributor source suggested that prices during the summer period would probably increase slightly because many Germany-based producers plan three- or four-week maintenance breaks in July and August. This will limit the availability of material and have some impact on the domestic market too.
Additionally, stocks of local producers are not that big, according to the source.
“Currently, expectations are bullish,” the consumer source said.
But a second distributor source told Fastmarkets that prices will not change significantly by the end of this month.
“Demand is still average – nothing special,” the source said.
Published by: Darina Kahramanova
