Prices are continuing to rise in Italy's domestic beams market. The players involved in the market report climbing quotations and difficulties in sourcing material.
The rising price trend is still linked to the climbing scrap prices and to the scarcity of beams in the market. The latter factor is due to the low levels of beams inventory at all levels of the sector and also to the strong demand which the Italian steelmakers are registering from foreign countries. The upshot has been an increase of around €20/mt in the base prices of beams in the space of the last seven days.
As regards the distribution system, the strong competition between traders has been exacerbated by the poor levels of domestic demand, and difficulties are being experienced in passing on to end-side users the increases which have been paid upstream.
As for the near future, any reversal of the current trend appears unlikely. On the contrary, the expections in the market are for further hikes of quotation levels.