In the last few weeks the scrap market in Italy has reached a balance between demand and supply, with prices in line with those in the international markets - according to Assofermet, the Italian association of traders of iron, steel, non-ferrous metals, ferrous scrap, hardware and similar goods.
Some mills have already stopped production for the summer holidays, and so scrap supplies match the needs of steelmakers even though the availability of this raw material remains low, also due to the delay of scrap deliveries caused by some problems related to the domestic rail system. In September, when the demand from the mills will pick up again, local scrap traders - whose inventories are currently very low - are likely to struggle to satisfy the requests from steel producers.
Scrap exports from Italy have increased in June and July, mainly due to the lowering of Italian quotations.
Meanwhile, it has reported that 62,300 metric tons of pig iron and 99,000 metric tons of scrap arrived at the Italian port of Marghera in June.