Polish rebar prices rise despite limited demand

Domestic rebar price in Poland increased slightly in the week to Friday October 11, despite persistently low demand, sources told Fastmarkets.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, cpt Poland, was 2,500-2,550 zloty ($637-650) per tonne on Friday, widening up by 20 zloty per tonne from 2,500-2,530 zloty per tonne on October 4.

Polish mills were offering rebar at 2,500-2,550 zloty per tonne CPT through the assessment week, sources told Fastmarkets, up from offers at 2,530 zloty per tonne CPT in the week to October 4, with some mills granting discounts for larger volumes.

But demand for rebar in Poland remains limited and there were no major deals, sources told Fastmarkets.

On October 10, ArcelorMittal increased all long steel prices across Europe by €40 per tonne, but a source said those increases would only be felt in the Polish from October 14.

“In Poland, we have not observed any significant movement up,” a distributor source told Fastmarkets. “Polish mills have sold good volumes quite cheaply [in previous weeks] and now they can keep [slightly] higher levels for smaller clients,” the source added.

A distributor source said that, following ArcelorMittal’s price hike demand was only likely to come from “stockists with empty stocks, [so] Any price uptick will only be short-lived.”

Rebar from Germany was on offer in Poland at €590-595 per tonne CPT and there has recently been a significant increase in German rebar exports to Poland to compensate for the lack of demand from its own weak construction sector, Fastmarkets understands.

Published by: Darina Kahramanova

fastmarkets.com