The southern European longs market has recorded another week of quiet business activity. Attempts at increases in the local rebar segment in Italy have failed, and low demand persists in both local and export segments. Moreover, according to sources, one of the Italian mills has decided to temporarily halt production due to the slow trading activity.
In Italy, the most realistic reference price for local rebar has been reported at €280-300/mt ex-works base (€545-565/mt ex-works including regular extras), while last week the deal prices settled in the upper end of the range. This situation has confirmed the failure of mills’ attempts to increase the workable prices to €340-350/mt ex-works base (€605-615/mt ex-works including regular extras).
The local wire rod market has also been weak, settling at around €570-580/mt delivered, compared to the €580-590/mt range delivered last week.
On the export side, ex-Italy offers have been reported at around €560/mt FOB for rebar, and at €580-590/mt delivered for wire rod to the EU, but some producers are not offering now. Some sources stated that Spain, on the other hand, has offered at around €615-620/mt CFR Lithuania for rebar, which corresponds to about €585/mt FOB, up €10-15/mt from last week. Some ex-Greece offers have been heard at €595-600/mt and €605-610/mt CFR Romania, for rebar and wire rod, respectively, stable from last week.
Finally, in the import segment, rebar offers were reported from Turkey at €555-575/mt CFR southern Europe, down slightly week on week (a week ago the reference range was €570-585/mt CFR), but buyers seem to be bidding €545/mt CFR. Egypt, on the other hand, offered rebar at €555-560/mt CFR and wire rod at €560-570/mt CFR, down from the common range of €565-585/mt CFR last week.
Wire rod import offers from Asia have remained stable week on week in the EU at the levels of $525-535/mt FOB, which corresponds to around €560-565/mt CFR Antwerp for large tonnages.