In the last session of the SteelOrbis Spring '12 Conference & 66th IREPAS Meeting held in London on April 1-3, long product and billet suppliers and producers, as well as traders and raw material suppliers, shared the conclusions they reached at their special committee meetings on the current situation in the markets with the general participants at the event.
Kim Marti Subirana of Celsa Group, the chairman of the rebar and wire rod suppliers' committee, said that the long steel market has started to gain stability, after the low activity levels experienced in February due to the cold winter in the northern hemisphere, adding that market activity is expected to accelerate in the coming month in line with better weather and increased construction activity.
The European long steel market remained fairly quiet in Q1, according to Kim Marti, while activity is expected to show some improvement in northern Europe in Q2. However, the same cannot be said for southern Europe. The outlook appears very bright for the long steel market in the Persian Gulf region, thanks to the positive economic situation there. Meanwhile, the US seems to emerging from the recession, Marti said, also remarking that the outlook is good for rebar and wire rod in Central and South America.