US Midwest rebar prices continued Monday to hold steady despite weeks of speculation they may be heading downward, market sources said.
"Domestic mills keep talking about [lowering prices] but then the weather gets better and they change their mind," said one Midwest distributor.
Platts maintained its weekly Midwest rebar price assessment at $475-$500/st ex-works on Monday.
More demand from the US construction industry, as well as the passage of the new federal highway bill, is helping to generate some optimism in the rebar market heading into March, the distributor said.
"I think people are more optimistic that things are getting better, rather than the gloom and doom outlook in recent months," he said.
And if higher import offers out of Turkey stick, a drop in pricing is even more unlikely, sources agreed.
Domestic rebar prices in Turkey have been on an upward trend since mid-February and higher import offers to the US started to emerge in the last week in line with the sharply strengthening prices of both domestic and imported billet and scrap.
But a second distributor said US traders are on the sidelines and aren't buying.
One US trader said current offers are around $335-$345/mt CFR ($308-$317/st CIF) for April shipments but everyone is waiting to see if prices come down again before committing to an order.
"People have done their orders for March, the next one they are talking about is April shipments so there's still a few weeks before people have to make a move on bringing in shipments," he said.
Platts maintained its daily US imported rebar price assessment to $303-$310/st CIF Houston. Turkey remains the price leader in the US Gulf.
"It's a lot of wait and see right now for both import and domestic," said the Midwest distributor.
With so many buyers waiting longer to place orders it is creating some tightness in the market for certain sizes," he said.
"I think we're going to see a lot of that this spring," the distributor said. "Everyone wants to buy at the bottom but when pricing starts going the other way some people are going to be out of luck."
