Low levels of real demand, low inventory and rising prices - this, in a nutshell, is the current situation in Italy's domestic merchant bar market.
The Italian beams producers are still registering sustained levels of demand coming from outside of Italy, while real demand in the domestic market is poor. Inventory levels are low, both among traders and producers.
The situation described above, taken together with the uptrend in scrap prices, is putting upward pressure on quotation levels. In recent days, prices have increased by around €20/mt with respect to the previous week and base prices are well over the €600/mt mark.
As regards the near future, traders are expecting further increases.