Turkish merchant bar producers are preparing to increase prices, following a recent downtrend.

On Friday, producers’ official export quotes were pegged mostly at around $570-600/tonne fob Turkey for angles, IPN-UPN sections, flat bar and IPE sections, unchanged from a week earlier.

Besides higher raw material costs, demand is also supportive of higher prices, meanwhile.

Turkish producers have seen improved demand in almost all exporting countries last week. However, despite stronger demand, prices failed to improve due to the lower offers from some Turkish producers.

A Turkish merchant bar re-roller tells Kallanish: “We should not be talking about $570/t fob anymore. However, some producers are very aggressive and want to eat the whole cake with almost no margins.”

Another producer adds: “Merchant bar should be priced at least $40/t higher from rebar. However, sadly, some producers are offering almost the same prices. This is harming the whole industry,”

Demand was received from all regions last week, including the major market, North Africa, the EU, the Middle East and Southern America.   

On billet, Russian-origin offers were reported at $440/t fob, but Turkey’s bids were at lower levels.