Following a period of mixed signals during summer, with deals of base rebar prices below €400/tonne ($461), and then trying to return to that threshold, German mills are now ambitious to take one step further.
“You will not get €400 any more now,” several buyers said unanimously at the beginning of the week. Meanwhile, “at least two mills only today announced that they want €420 now,” one buyer told Kallanish on Wednesday confirming expectations expressed by others earlier.
The increase appears modest in comparison with Italian domestic base price offers of €440/t, and meanwhile way above that, too. One German purchasing manager dismisses those figures completely. “I have not heard €440, let alone more, neither from Germany nor from Italy.” He tells of a deal with an Italian mill only last week over a three-digit tonnage at below €400/t still, “but we were probably the last to enjoy that,” he says.
The mills have good reasons to ask for higher prices. “From north to south, all of them argue with energy costs,” which keep climbing because of the conflict on the Persian Gulf, the manager points out.
Another manager at a bending firm says he does not believe in a pronounced increase so soon. “I was expecting jobs from the construction industry to come back now that the summer break is over. They did, but to a lesser extent than I had wished,” he says. He also points at continued cannibalism among benders, with many of them making offers at dumping prices to secure orders.
Another source tells of a project in Hanover over a volume of 10,000 tonnes, which was won at a bid of €680/t. All the while mills would charge €685/t delivered, provided they can exert the base price of €420, plus the average size extra of €265.
Author: Christian Koehl
