Demand for rebar from other sectors remained low, however.
Polish mills were heard offering rebar in the range of 2,700-2,740 zloty ($683-693) per tonne CPT this week, which would net back to about 2,680-2,710 zloty per tonne ex-works.
Offer prices in the previous assessment period were similar, varying between 2,700 zloty per tonne and 2,750 zloty per tonne CPT, equivalent to 2,680-2,730 zloty per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ sources estimated the tradable market price for rebar at 2,700-2,740 Polish zloty per tonne CPT, which would net back to 2,680-2,710 zloty per tonne ex-works.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Poland, was 2,680-2,710 zloty per tonne on Friday, down by 20 zloty per tonne from 2,700-2,730 zloty per tonne on March 15.
Rebar prices in the secondary market varied between 2,730 zloty per tonne and 2,750 zloty per tonne CPT.
A distributor source told Fastmarkets that, in the previous assessment period to March 15, Polish mills had almost sold-out their volumes for March, with the major buyers being cut-and-bend companies.
“The construction sector will start to work more actively in May,” the same source added. “Consequently, many construction firms decided to finalize their contracts with the cut-and-bend companies last week at those prices. But right now, there are no significant quantities available in the market.”
According to the distributor source, except for the cut-and-bend business, trading remained poor.
“Now, Polish mills are only delivering [material on orders they received in previous weeks], and the market is a bit frozen,” a producer source told Fastmarkets.
“[Most market participants] are waiting for the new prices [expected] after Easter,” a seller source told Fastmarkets.
According to the distributor source, one of the Polish mills was expected to announce its prices for April-production rebar at the end of March.
A second distributor source said that the downtrend in Polish rebar prices would not continue for long.
“Demand is not bad, and I do not think that prices will decline significantly in the future,” this second distributor source said. “Maybe in April, the minimum prices from Polish mills will be a bit below 2,700 zloty per tonne CPT.” He believed that prices would then stabilize.
Production cuts were also expected to affect the market. Last week, a mill was heard to adjust output by bringing-in flexible working when energy prices are lower, to decrease production costs.
Market sources have now told Fastmarkets that a second mill would be working only over the weekends in April, to cut production.
“With the higher foreign-exchange rate [between the euro and the zloty], imports can become less attractive,” the second distributor source said.
This week, import offers of rebar from Germany to Poland were heard at €620-625 ($676-681) per tonne CPT, while Italian material was offered to Poland at €640 per tonne CPT.
