The Italian pig iron and ferroalloy markets have reopened after the holiday but it seems activity levels in these markets have still failed to pick up, according to Assofermet, the Italian association of traders of iron, steel, non-ferrous metals, ferrous scrap, hardware and similar goods.
It appears that many local steel mills in Italy are only going to resume production in the next few days, later than they had previously indicated. Meanwhile, on the foundry side, production activity had already started in some cases in the first week of the year, some producers have resumed operations in the current week, while others will restart production in the week ahead.
On average, Italian steelmakers' pig iron stocks are satisfactory as they had accelerated restocking activity at the end of 2011, while local foundries' pig iron stocks are generally on the low side and are only sufficient to meet urgent needs.
Pig iron prices increased in December and quotations rose further at the beginning of January, both locally and on FOB Russia/Ukraine basis. In the next few days, it will be seen if buyers leave the door open for further upticks.
For now, transactions activity in the Italian pig iron market is lackluster and deals are rare enough, with the increased prices failing to spark activity in the market but just succeeding in raising the attention levels of buyers.
As regards ferroalloys, supply of common ferroalloys is plentiful and prices are trending flat, while prices of special ferroalloys are set to increase due to rising non-ferrous metal quotations on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Ferroalloy transactions in Italy remain on the scarce side.