Most Polish mills were aiming to sell May production rebar at 2,700 zloty ($703) per tonne CPT, with only one small supplier heard offering the material at 2,600 zloty per tonne CPT, sources said.
The offers from the small supplier were not considered as indicative of the wider market because it does not provide a full range of rebar specifications, but it still had some impact on the Polish market, Fastmarkets understands.
Most market participants estimated the tradable market level at 2,650-2,700 zloty per tonne CPT.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, cpt Poland was 2,600-2,700 zloty per tonne on Friday, up by 70 zloty per tonne from 2,600-2,630 zloty per tonne on April 4.
“Demand looks much better now compared with two weeks ago,” a distributor source told Fastmarkets, adding that the improvement was due to seasonal factors.
Germany, which until recently was actively exporting rebar to Poland has now halted shipments to focus on its own domestic market.
One leading German rebar supplier has yet to resume operations since stopping production in December.
And a second German rebar producer, whose main production capacities are located close to the Rhine river, has reduced its output due to struggling to secure scrap supplies because transportation costs have increased due to low water levels in the river, sources told Fastmarkets.
The weak Polish zloty has also made imports more expensive. According to the OANDA currency converter, €1 was worth 4.25 Polish zloty on April 11. In comparison, on March 11, €1 was equivalent to 4.19 Polish zloty.
“A rebar price at 2,700 zloty per tonne CPT is not that high, considering the current exchange rate. Mills could easily sell at this level amid the uncertainty related to the exchange rate and limited supplies from Germany to Poland,” a producer source told Fastmarkets.
The source said that Poland was now exporting rebar to Germany.
In terms of other imports, a Lithuanian distributor was rumored to have purchased 35,000 tonnes of rebar from Turkey and is now offering the volumes to Poland at €610 ($661) per tonne DAP, Fastmarkets understands. However, the transaction could not be widely confirmed by the time of publication.
Rebar from Ukraine was on offer to Poland at €575-580 per tonne delivered on the border.
Wire rod
Polish domestic prices for low-carbon drawing-quality wire rod also increased slightly in the week to Friday, sources told Fastmarkets, with Polish mills offering the material at 2,850-2.950 zloty per tonne CPT.
Sources estimated the tradable market level at 2,770-2,850 zloty per tonne CPT.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel wire rod (drawing quality), domestic, delivered Poland was 2,770-2,850 zloty per tonne on Friday, up by 20 zloty per tonne from 2,750-2,850 zloty per tonne on April 4.