Northwest European rebar producers have raised their prices on low supply, no imports, higher costs and seasonal restocking, local market sources said this week. According to them, mills don't have large availability and delivery times are longer than before -- some buyers have experienced delays this week for orders booked before the summer.
Mills said they are fully booked, while some buyers believe they are artificially reducing their availability or are overbooked with the orders closed before the summer at lower prices than now.
Buyers and producers confirmed an average of 3-5 weeks delivery time, in contrast to the average of two weeks that was typical earlier this year, which led big stockholders to stop making stocks, confident of the quick delivery and higher supply. Both sides also said imports are not relevant for now and are mostly uncompetitive. Scrap prices are seen rising again for September by at least Eur5-10/mt.
In Germany, domestic mills are offering rebar at Eur260-270/mt ($343-356/mt) base delivered and according to one trader are ready to hike the prices next week to Eur280/mt.
In Belgium, a buyer said German mills want to increase the prices to around Eur270-280/mt delivered base and that they are confident of reaching that level, in particular for non-common sizes. Last week the buyer said they managed to buy rebar at Eur250/mt base delivered.
In the Netherlands, a rebar producer confirmed prices at Eur260-280/mt after having closed deals at Eur250/mt base delivered.
"Buyers start to believe that prices are moving up, but also the customers of our customers are paying more. In Holland we had a problem with payments, while now we see the consolidation of the market at an end with most of the bad companies out of the market," the producer said. Imports are reported at Eur505/mt delivered.
In France, the sole producer, Riva, after four weeks of summer stoppages has restarted production and is out at Eur250/mt base delivered and pondering a further price increase next week.
Platts increased on Friday its daily assessment for EU rebar to Eur484/mt ex-works.
