After the slight price recovery observed in the previous four weeks, Italian rebar producers' prices for their domestic market have mostly softened by €5-10/mt ($6-12/mt) in the past week to €425-430/mt ex-works. However, at least one local producer has kept its prices unchanged. Due to slack demand and the upcoming Christmas holidays, the number of transactions concluded has been very low.
Meanwhile, rebar demand from Algeria still appears good and, according to sources, the Algerian market will allow Italian rebar producers to survive difficult market conditions also in January 2015. However, at the moment Algerian buyers are not particularly active, while Italian producers are not so eager to conclude sales due to the approach of the holidays.