Polish rebar prices weakened during the week to Friday August 29 due to sluggish demand, with mills resorting to production cuts to fend off further price drops, sources told Fastmarkets.
Over the week, market participants indicated that prices for rebar hovered around 2,400-2,430 zloty ($656-664) per tonne CPT. The previous week, traders estimated the workable market for rebar at 2,400-2,450 zloty per tonne CPT.
“There isn’t much room for prices to go deeper down – I believe we have reached the bottom,” one distributor source told Fastmarkets, adding that September’s decision on scrap delivery prices might influence the market.
“Scrap is an important cost factor for long steel products, so we might see new price increases in September,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Fastmarkets heard that some mills in Poland have stopped accepting new orders for rebar and reduced their production quotas to keep prices stable.
“We are not making money at current prices, so we’ll have to reduce production for the month of September,” a producer source said.
“We’d rather take a production cut than lower prices,” the producer source added.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) domestic, cpt Poland was 2,400-2,430 zloty per tonne on Friday, narrowing downward by 20 zloty from 2,400-2,450 zloty per tonne the previous week.
Some import prices for rebar from Germany were heard around €580-590 ($676-688) per tonne delivered. Meanwhile, import prices from Ukraine were heard hovering around €540-550 per tonne delivered, for quantities above 1,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile, wire rod prices remained stable this week.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel wire rod (drawing quality), domestic, delivered Poland was 2,580-2,650 zloty per tonne on Friday, unchanged week on week.
