Long steel products buyers in Poland have withstood price increases attempted by mills in recent weeks, particularly in the segment of wire rod, Fastmarkets heard on Friday February 6.
High competition and the availability of cheap-import downstream products were named as the key reasons for the pushback against price rises.
A wire rod buyer source reported that nails (a finished product made from drawing quality wire rod, CN code 7317) are not included in the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and therefore can be imported without additional costs.
Screws (another downstream product, CN code 7318), meanwhile, do fall within CBAM.
Under such conditions, some wire rod buyers resisted rises for drawing quality wire rod, as they face difficulties in passing on these costs, at least in the nails market segment.
Mills, at the same time, are being pressured by growing production costs, particularly of scrap and electricity.
Offers varied within the range of 2,750-2,950 zloty ($770-826) per tonne delivered, whereas estimates of workable prices came in at 2,700-2,780 zloty per tonne delivered.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (drawing quality), domestic, delivered Poland dropped to 2,700-2,780 zloty per tonne on February 6, falling by 20-50 zloty from 2,750-2,800 zloty per tonne on January 30.
In the rebar segment, customers’ behavior was similar, but the reason for the pushback was seasonally slow activity in the construction sector and a colder-than-normal winter.
Mills’ offers varied within the range of 2,650-2,700 zloty per tonne cpt, while transactions were heard at 2,550-2,600 zloty cpt over the reported period.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, cpt Poland was 2,550-2,600 zloty on February 6, down from 2,600-2,650 zloty per tonne on January 30.
