According to market sources, trading activity in the southern European longs market is still weak even after the Easter break. Timid signs of increase are not absent, but still insufficient.
In the local rebar segment in Italy, tradable offer prices have been reported stable at €300/mt ex-works base (€565/mt ex-works including regular extras), with variations of -/+€10/mt depending on the producer and volume. According to sources, there have been modest attempts at increases by some steel mills, aiming to reach €330-340/mt ex-works base (€595-605/mt ex-works including regular extras), but demand remains too low and there has been no feedback from buyers yet. "I see it difficult to increase by €20/mt in May, I see a more realistic +€10/mt," commented a source from an Italian producer.
Offer prices in the local wire rod segment, on the other hand, have been reported in Italy at €650-670/mt delivered for drawing quality wire rod and €640-650/mt delivered to the customer for mesh quality wire rod. Some Italian producers have indeed increased their offers by around €10-20/mt compared to the previous ones.
As for export offers, ex-Spain rebar offers have been reported at €630/mt CFR Lithuania. If by sea, a very weak demand is consistently reported, by truck there have been attempts by Italian producers to increase prices by €10-20/mt for some markets such as Germany and eastern Europe, with offers around €600-610/mt delivered for rebar, but there has been no response from buyers yet in this case as well.
The market was quiet during the week regarding imports due to the Eid holiday. However, ex- Indonesia wire rod offers have been reported at €530-540/mt CFR southern Europe, ex-Malaysia at €540/mt CFR, and ex-Vietnam at €545-550/mt CFR.