Demand for both products remained comparatively weak due to the winter season and the upcoming holidays, however.
Rebar
Polish mills increased their offers for rebar to 2,820 Polish zloty ($716) per tonne CPT this week, which nets back to about 2,800 zloty per tonne ex-works, sources told Fastmarkets. The previous offers of the mills did not exceed 2,800 zloty per tonne CPT, which nets back to about 2,780 zloty per tonne ex-works.
Those price levels were not widely accepted by the market, and Fastmarkets’ sources estimated the workable levels for the past week at 2,700-2,770 zloty per tonne CPT, which nets back to about 2,680-2,740 zloty per tonne ex-works.
For this week, offers in the secondary market reached even higher levels of 2,850 zloty per tonne CPT, a distributor source told Fastmarkets. Offers below 2,800 zloty per tonne CPT were very few.
According to market participants, Polish mills have already sold their material and anyone who is buying now is desperate and will have to accept the new prices. This week, deals were heard to be concluded at 2,800-2,850 zloty per tonne CPT, which nets back to 2,780-2,820 zloty per tonne ex-works.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Poland was 2,780-2,820 zloty per tonne on December 15, increasing by 80-100 zloty per tonne from 2,680-2,740 per tonne on December 8.
A distributor source told Fastmarkets that Polish mills had increased their prices quite sharply against the backdrop of poor demand.
The source added that last week they had bought small quantities of below 1,000 tonnes for 2,720 zloty per tonne CPT, which nets back to about 2,700 zloty per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets did not include this deal in the assessment for this week because the transaction took place in the previous assessment period.
The source added that demand will likely remain poor in the first days of January too.
“If there will not be a harsh winter after the middle of February, the new [rebar] prices will be accepted by the market, but for another round of hikes we need to wait till February,” the distributor source said.
Offers of the material from Germany to Poland were heard at €640 per tonne CPT. According to Fastmarkets’ sources, German mills were still willing to sell for €630 per tonne CPT.
Wire rod
Polish mills continued offering wire rod in the range of 3,100-3,300 zloty per tonne, unchanged from the previous week.
But these levels were not widely accepted by the market. Fastmarkets’ sources estimated the workable levels at 2,900-3,100 zloty per tonne CPT.
Thus, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (drawing quality), domestic, delivered Poland was 2,900-3,100 zloty per tonne on December 15, unchanged from the previous week.
Demand for wire rod remained weak and supply was limited, sources told Fastmarkets.
For example, the wire rod line in Sosnowiec currently produces smaller amounts at around 70% of its capacity, a second distributor source told Fastmarkets. The source expected that the prices would remain unchanged until the end of the month.
A third distributor source said there is a “big scarcity of the material in the market”. The source added there were no offers from Italy and Germany.
Offers of the material from other European producers to Poland were heard at €640 per tonne CPT.
Published by: Darina Kahramanova
