Polish prices for steel rebar have finally fallen to rock bottom, and producers were intending to look for increases for their January output, Fastmarkets heard on Friday December 2.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Poland, was 3,250-3,350 zloty ($726-748) per tonne on Friday, stable week-on week.
Rebar prices in Poland have been coming down continuously since mid-September, but it appeared that this downtrend was finally over.
Several transactions were reported during the past week at 3,250-3,350 zloty per tonne ex-works, although sources said that these were the final tonnages to be sold at the low prices.
Most mills in Poland were reported to have closed their order books for December-rolling rebar.
One integrated mill in the country has already increased its offers to 3,700 zloty per tonne CPT for January material. This would net back to about 3,650-3,670 zloty per tonne ex-works.
The push for an increase was due to rising energy prices, market sources said.
The average wholesale electricity price in Poland was 646.30 zloty per MWh in October, but prices rose throughout November, eventually exceeding 750 zloty per MWh, according to market sources.
Buyers did not consider this level workable, however.
“[End-user] demand is still rather weak, and we are heading toward the year-end. But prices on the spot market should go up in December on some [activity for] restocking,” a trading source said.
Market sources expected rebar prices in Poland to rise to 3,400-3,500 zloty per tonne ex-works before the year-end.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
