EU long steel market participants are preparing for a deluge of Turkey-origin material to hit European shores in July when buyers race to fill up new quotas, sources told Fastmarkets.
That means the European Commission's year-long quotas for Turkish rebar and wire rod - which begin on July 1 - are likely to be filled up within the same month, the Fastmarkets MB research team believes. Turkey-origin rebar has an allocation of 301,538 tonnes for the new EU annual import quota period from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. To put that in context, in 2018 alone, Turkey's rebar exports to the European Union totaled 821,178 tonnes. "The Turkish mills are aiming to fill all 300,000 tonnes of the new annual EU quota [for rebar] by the first days of July - they're targeting for mid-June delivery to European ports," one European producer source said. "Material will be brought in and kept in a bonded warehouse and once they open it, they will do a customs [declaration] on July 1," he added. Turkey-origin non-alloy wire rod has an allocation of 312,081...