With Easter approaching and demand remaining weak, producers in southern Europe are beginning to halt or slow down production. Italian rebar producers, in particular, are not selling much and consequently continue to fill their warehouses. To limit the impact of this situation and avoid consuming too much scrap (prices of which could increase in a few weeks’ time), many are opting to halt production for one or more weeks.
In the local Italian rebar market, offers have been reported stable week on week at €290-300/mt ex-works base (€555-565/mt ex-works including regular extras). Now there will be one or more weeks of shutdowns at the steel mills and some sources expect a slight rebound in prices upon the restart.
In the Italian wire rod segment as well, activity has been weak and offer prices have been reported at stable levels. Offers have been stated at €670/mt delivered for drawing quality, the same price as last week.
Regarding imports, slight increases in offers from Turkey have been reported. This week, ex-Turkey rebar has been offered at €575-585/mt CFR southern Europe (compared to the range of €560-580/mt CFR last week) and wire rod at €585-595/mt CFR (compared to €585/mt CFR reported a week ago). Ex-Egypt offers have also seen a slight increase, now at €570-575/mt CFR for wire rod, compared to the previous range of €560-570/mt CFR. From Asia, finally, wire rod offers at €545-550/mt CFR have been reported.