European domestic rebar, sections market anticipates price hikes

The European longs market was expecting higher price movements on the back of energy and scrap costs and limited import availability for rebar, but the market still had yet to absorb higher offers, sources said March 1.

Several sources said that one mill that had been out of the market over the last week had increased their offer prices by Eur30/mt on March 1 based on energy and higher scrap costs.

“Some mills are catching up so I wouldn’t really see it as a price increase,” a Southern Europe-based producer said. “It is still not clear where the market is, we have to see next week.”

The producer reported a workable level of Eur960-Eur970/mt delivered Northwest Europe for medium sections category 1, adding prices at Eur940/mt were not achievable anymore.

A Benelux-based distributor put workable levels for medium sections category 1 at Eur950-Eur960/delivered Northwest Europe.

A Benelux-based trader said that for rebar, customers were not in immediate need for booking material due to restocking in late 2022 and early 2023. He put offer prices from European mills at Eur710-Eur715/mt delivered Northwest Europe, with some room for negotiation.

Sources said due to the current focus of Turkish mills on the domestic rebar market, import volumes to Europe were expected to be low this year, supporting European mills’ prices on top of increasing scrap costs, while energy costs would remain high.

A Europe-based mill source said they would need to pass on higher production costs to customers, and that prices in Northwest Europe had been subdued for some time.

Platts assessed the weekly assessment for rebar at Eur705/mt EXW Northwest Europe March 1, stable on the week. The weekly medium sections assessment moved up Eur5 on the week to Eur945-Eur955/mt delivered Europe.

Platts is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.

— Laura Varriale