In the last 20 days no significant changes have been recorded in the Italian flat steel market. While it is not possible to speak of a recovery, at the same time there has not been any obvious deterioration in the market situation, and, indeed, while demand has remained extremely poor, it has shown some slight improvement, evidenced by an increase - albeit minimal - in order activities. Nevertheless, there has not been any positive news from the global steel market and local market prices have continued to decline slowly. Italian steel producers' profit margins remain low, while strong competition exists between the domestic mills. Meanwhile, thanks to the formation of a new government in Italy, local market operators say they are more optimistic now, though they are still waiting for concrete political decisions that will stimulate an economic recovery in the medium-to-long term.
According to local sources, the month of May does not seem to have started under the best auspices and for now it does not seem to differ much from the previous two months, especially in terms of demand. As always, collection of payments is proving to be an urgent problem, while inventory levels are quite low due to the lack of liquidity affecting the entire supply chain.
Currently, Italian producers' flat steel base prices are at around €460-465/mt ($603-609/mt) for hot rolled coils (HRC), €535-540/mt ($701-707/mt) for cold rolled coils (CRC) and €505-510/mt ($662-668/mt) for hot dip galvanized (HDG) coils, all ex-works.
€1 = $1.31