ArcelorMittal has increased its offer price for long steel products by €20 ($21.28) per tonne across Europe, sources told Fastmarkets at the sidelines of the Wire and Tube fair in Dusseldorf.
Prior to the price increase in the first week of April, ArcelorMittal was offering rebar in Poland at 2,700 Polish zloty ($669) per tonne CPT, which nets back to about 2,680 zloty per tonne ex-works. Wire rod was offered at 3,000 Polish zloty per tonne CPT.
However, buyer sources expressed skepticism that the new prices would be accepted in deals, citing slow demand from the construction sector, the main consumer of long steel products. A trading source told Fastmarkets that "the new prices have not been sealed in deals yet — buyers are resisting.
"Prices for long steel products in Europe have been declining recently, with Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel rebar in Poland down by 5.96% from late February. The assessment for rebar in Northern Europe also decreased during this period.
Despite the depressed buyer sentiment, one seller source said that long steel prices in Europe would not decrease further due to high production costs. Additionally, imports have become less attractive, with some suppliers having already depleted their second-quarter allocation for certain products.
Notably, Turkey's wire rod import allowance of 116,233 tonnes for April-June had already been fully utilized by Monday, April 15, and only slightly over 11,000 tonnes out of the 119,890-tonne "other countries" quota were available.
