Downtrend in Italian flat steel market following mid-March peak

After a period of price increases with the peak reached in the middle of March, during the last two weeks the flat steel market in Italy has followed a downtrend. Local mills have started to lower their offers, and the local service centers, facing strong competition and ongoing hesitant demand from end-users, have assumed a wait-and-see stance, trying to keep their inventories under control in order to better react to the unpredictable market changes.
 
Italian industry is slowing down again, in the context of higher energy costs and the general uncertainty in the markets. Most market operators considered that flat steel quotations had reached relatively high levels in the first half of March, and thus they had forecast an imminent downturn in prices. What they hope now is that the downtrend of prices will not last for long.       
 
Currently, in the Italian flat steel market, local base prices for hot rolled coils (HRC) stand at around €610/mt ($865/mt) ex-works, while cold rolled coils (CRC) and hot dip galvanized coils (HDG) are respectively at €680-700/mt ($964-992/mt) ex-works and €660-670/mt ($935-949/mt) ex-works. There is tight availability for CRC, and this has contributed to moderating the rate of decrease of CRC prices. The situation is different for HRC and HDG, with quotations decreasing at a faster pace as suppliers wish to fill their order books as soon as possible. 
 
With regard to exports, in the last few weeks the main Italian suppliers have shipped good volumes of flat steel to buyers in central and northern Europe.
 
On the import side, booked materials were arriving at the ports previously, with flat steel prices on an uptrend. However, the situation has now changed, and so re-sellers have to reduce their offers in order to attract demand. 
 
In conclusion, in the short-term period Italy's flat steel market is expected to decrease further. However, the market may gradually recover starting from the end of April, but this will also depend on the raw materials trend in the coming weeks.
 
€1= $1.417