Italian coated steel market faces poor demand and cheaper Chinese offers

The Italian domestic coated steel market is under pressure from low demand amid the economic depression in the country and also from cheaper offers from China.
 
As SteelOrbis previously reported, back in November 2011 the European Steel Association (EUROFER) filed an antidumping complaint with the European Commission against China's pre-painted
sheet and plastic coated sheet imports into the European Union (EU). Following this application, an antidumping investigation was launched and is still continuing. According to EUROFER, "Over the past four years imports from China into the EU increased dramatically, despite the drop in EU consumption and the share in the EU market of organic coated steel (consist of pre-painted sheet and plastic coated sheet) from China increased from 0.5 percent in 2004 to 15 percent in 2011.
 
Market players also state that, due to the current antidumping duty of 23 percent imposed by Russia on China's pre-painted sheet imports, China is giving more aggressive offers to the European market.
 
On the other hand, Indian producers have switched their focus to the Russian market amid low coated sheet demand in Europe.
 
SteelOrbis has learned from market sources that Chinese 0.6 mm pre-painted sheet offers to Italy are standing at $940/mt CFR, while Indian offers for 0.6 mm hot dip galvanized (HDG) sheet are at €660-670/mt ($871-884/mt) CFR.
 
In the meantime, in the Italian domestic market 0.6 mm HDG prices are at €690/mt ($911/mt), while prices for 100 gr/m² zinc coated RAL 9001 pre-painted sheet of 0.6 mm thickness are standing at €820/mt ($1,082/mt), both ex-works.
 
€1 = $1.32