Rebar prices in the Italian domestic market have fallen further in the last seven days. The downtrend has now lasted for about one month. In the last week, Italian suppliers' rebar prices have declined by €5-10/mt ($6-13/mt) to €490-495/mt ($632-639/mt) ex works for diameters of 14-26 mm.
After the price hikes in late August, when steel mills had received few orders, Italian rebar quotations have since fallen to the levels recorded around mid-July, just before the summer halts. Italian long steel producers may also offer reductions of €10/mt ($13/mt) for particularly large orders in an effort to stimulate transaction activity. Despite this, local demand does not indicate any sign of improvement.
The market environment is somewhat better on the export side. Ex-Italy offers for Algeria have dropped down from last week's €480-485/mt ($619-626/mt) FOB to the current €475/mt ($613/mt) FOB, while Algerian buyers are showing growing interest in the latest offers. In fact, they are starting to book new material as they feel the international long steel downtrend is close to the bottom and also because they have partially sold off the stocks they had built up before the summer. Indeed, ex-Turkey offers have also recently fallen to their lowest level of the last two years, declining to $580-585/mt. The euro/dollar exchange rate is relatively favourable to euro-based offers, as it is quite stable at slightly under 1.30.
€1 = $1.29