The stability of German rebar prices, despite falling scrap values, is also not being threatened much by cheaper rebar import offers, sources say. This applies to Austria to some extent, too.
German ports have gained some favour for smaller coastal vessels with loads of 5,000+ tonnes. One observer gives the example of an Algeria-origin shipment offered at €600/t ($683) cif German port. But he cautions this offer is not necessarily attractive for buyers further inland to the south.
The manager of an eastern German stockholder not too far from the coast confirms this. “They [Algerian suppliers] are offering €630/t delivered to the door,” he tells Kallanish. But the size range is limited, and apparently the offer applies to a volume of 5,000t, essentially the entire load – few buyers in these days of meagre demand would risk that tonnage.
German buyers therefore prefer domestic material, which some see at €665/t ex-works, others at up to €695/t, depending on the deal. This is composed of a base price of €400-430 plus the size extra of €265.
Relative price stability is also being seen in Austria, even from Italian suppliers. Offers from there are at base prices of €360-370 delivered, which is easily €100 over the domestic Italian prices. “There are bottlenecks with transport space,” one manager explains and expresses the impression that “they [Italian suppliers] therefore prefer to sell domestic”.
Offers from domestic and German producers in Austria are at €630-640/t delivered. Rebar in coil offers are hard to come by, with little price difference between domestic (€660 delivered) and Italian mills (€650), the manager says.
Further north, buyers are also observing a coil shortage in Germany. However, coil is still only fetching the standard premium of €20/t over bars. Various sources say they find the supply scarcity is not helping much with supporting prices, due to low demand from construction.
Christian Koehl Germany
