Trying to cover the growing production costs, especially the higher electricity prices, Polish mills came up last week with higher offers, reaching in some cases 2,650 zloty ($651) per tonne CPT.
During the latest assessment period, all major rebar producers in Poland were heard offering rebar for December/January production at 2,650 zloty per tonne CPT, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
“Polish mills sold good volumes at the lower price levels several weeks ago, and now they are not interested in giving any significant discounts,” a distributor source told Fastmarkets.
The distributor source added that some cut-and-bend companies had tried to close some contracts with the Polish producers at the old prices, asking for 2,550 zloty per tonne CPT, but this level had not been accepted.
A producer source reported some sales of small volumes at 2,600-2,610 zloty per tonne CPT, adding that they only partially succeeded in their attempt to raise prices.
Polish buyers’ estimations for the workable market level were at 2,580-2,620 zloty per tonne CPT, Fastmarkets understands.
According to one buyer source, demand remained very low, and, therefore, lower price levels at 2,500 zloty per tonne CPT were still available in the market. But this view was not largely shared by other market participants, and Fastmarkets excluded this estimation from its final assessment.
Reflecting the information about realized sales and industry sources’ estimations, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) domestic, cpt Poland was 2,580-2,610 zloty per tonne on Friday, increasing by 30-80 zloty per tonne from 2,500-2,580 zloty per tonne on December 6.
“Polish mills want to show better financial results for the last quarter of the year and demonstrate to the management boards that they are not selling below the cost line,” a second distributor source told Fastmarkets.
But market participants’ expectations about the future remained mixed.
According to the second distributor, prices would probably decrease in the second half of January, but not to the levels available in the market a few weeks ago. The source expected that the Polish rebar prices would probably stabilize at 2,580 zloty per tonne CPT.
The first distributor source told Fastmarkets that the prices would probably remain elevated in January and February with high production costs supporting this trend.
The first distributor added that they expect limited scrap availability in the domestic market during the first months of next year.
Local scrap companies would take long production breaks starting from December to the first weeks of January, which would have an effect on the scrap supply in Poland.
“Besides, the plate producer Huta Czestochowa, which will resume operations at the beginning of the next year, is currently interested in buying more scrap,” the source added.
Insolvent Polish steel slab and plate producer Huta Czestochowa has been given a lifeline by state-owned industrial group Weglokoks, with the aim of resuming steelmaking operations at the southern Poland facility in January 2025, Fastmarkets reported.
A second steel producer in Poland was also planning to buy bigger volumes of scrap, sources said.
The limited availability would probably push domestic scrap prices up and this would also affect Polish rebar prices, according to the first distributor.
In terms of imports, German rebar was heard offered to Poland at €620 ($651) per tonne delivered.
