The increases in domestic scrap prices to levels above last January's levels have pushed Italian rebar producers to inform local buyers that they will target prices higher than €420-430/mt ($449-460/mt) ex-works. However, demand is still very low in the local Italian rebar market. Accordingly, current transaction prices in the market are mostly in the range of €400-410/mt ($428-439/mt), and rarely at €420/mt ($449/mt) ex-works.
Meanwhile, there is still no news about the release of rebar import licenses in Algeria. As a result, rebar exports to the country are still blocked, with high volumes of material waiting at Italian ports. According to sources, the absence of the Algerian market may push Italian producers to look for alternative markets. As reported previously, some Italian producers sold small volumes of rebar in past weeks to Lebanon, which had not received competitive offers from China, Turkey and the CIS. However, Lebanon consumes only about 600,000 mt of rebar per year, while in recent years Italy exported more than 1 million mt of rebar annually to Algeria.
€1 = $1.07