Rebar prices in Germany are not showing any sustained move in either direction this month, largely holding firm at slightly above €600/tonne ($695) delivered on average.
One buyer in Lower Saxony tells Kallanish of a deal done at €575/t from a German mill last week. However, he cautions that mills are about to fill order books enough to bring offer prices back up.
“Mills could be utilised into January, and will return to the €600,” he says. His particular deal was made with the one German mill that still offered a discount of €15-20, which other mills stopped offering earlier. All of them, however, still have discounts for wire mesh.
A northern German manager concedes that some offers have softened, but not by more than €10. He is not surprised about bargain offers as “order volumes are low altogether, and the mills want to make use of their capacities”.
Regarding the prospects for a notable recovery in the market, a southwestern German buyer expresses little optimism in the short run, as construction activity is still far too low. He has no great expectations for the government’s big infrastructure programme announced this year. “For us benders and builders, it will take two years for the measures to take an effect on plans that are sitting in the drawer, and before we feel anything,” he notes.
It is little wonder then that many benders keep making dumping-price offers to get jobs from builders. “And that won’t change much as long as the market is as it is,” he says.
Christian Koehl Germany
