Polish rebar prices inch up on limited availability

Domestic prices for steel rebar in Poland increased slightly in the week to Friday January 10 on limited availability, industry sources have told Fastmarkets.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, cpt Poland, was 2,600-2,610 zloty per tonne ($627-630) on Friday, narrowing upward by 20 zloty per tonne from 2,580-2,610 zloty per tonne a week earlier.

Polish mills were heard offering rebar at 2,610-2,650 zloty per tonne CPT, but buyers did not consider the upper end of that price range to be workable, Fastmarkets heard.

According to industry sources, Polish mills were not willing to give significant discounts, with the workable market price estimated at 2,600-2,610 zloty per tonne CPT.

The Polish rebar market has not fully restarted after the winter holiday break, and no major deals were heard in the assessment week.

Some deals for large volumes exceeding 1,000 tonnes were heard at the end of December at 2,550-2,570 zloty per tonne CPT. But these prices were not included in the assessment because they were not in line with Fastmarkets’ methodology.

A trader source told Fastmarkets that such prices could not be considered indicative of the market because, due to the tonnages, individual prices were negotiated.

According to industry sources, the slight price increase for Polish rebar was due to the limited availability of material during the assessment week.

“Demand is not great. The only reason prices have not started to fall is the restricted quantities available from mills,” a distributor source told Fastmarkets.

The source added that one Polish mill was trying to produce less rebar than normal. “They are inventing stoppages and trying to transition from three to two working shifts,” the distributor said.

According to the same source, prices will start to fall again by the end of January, when more competitive imports were expected to begin arriving at the country’s warehouses.

The trader source also confirmed that limited imports recently had supported the domestic rebar prices.

“In December, there were not [many import] offers from Italy and Germany,” the trader source said, adding that the good weather conditions were also favorable for the construction sector – the main consumer of rebar. All these factors supported domestic prices.

In terms of imports, Germany has been heard offering rebar to Poland at €605 ($623) per tonne delivered since the beginning of 2025.

Offers from Ukraine were heard at €530-550 per tonne delivered at the border.

Long steel consumption ‘below historic levels’
Long steel consumption in Europe has been substantially below historic levels, steel manufacturer CMC, which is present in Poland, said in its report for the fiscal first quarter of 2025 (September-November 2024) on January 6.

“The beneficial effects of improving Polish demand in certain end-market applications, and regional supply discipline, have been largely offset by increased import flows from neighboring nations that have sought an outlet for product not consumed within their home markets,” CMC said.

Last year, Germany significantly increased its rebar exports to neighboring countries to compensate for the lack of activity in its domestic construction sector.

Europe Steel Group, representing CMC’s operations in Europe, recorded net sales of $209.4 million during its fiscal first quarter. This was a decrease of 5.7% compared with the previous quarter’s $222.1 million.

Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) were $25.8 million for the first fiscal quarter. But the positive financial result was due to an annual CO2 credit associated with a government program, CMC said.

“Excluding this credit,” the company added, “financial results deteriorated modestly compared with the prior two quarters (EBITDA losses of $3.6 million and $4.2 million respectively) due to metal margin compression driven by high import volumes.”

Published by: Darina Kahramanova