The falling trend of the Italian flat steel market has slowed down over the past two weeks. Currently, Italian producers' domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) base prices are at €460-470/mt ($520-531/mt) ex-works, while their cold rolled coil (CRC) prices are at €550-560/mt ($622-633/mt) ex-works and their hot dip galvanized (HDG) prices are at €555-565/mt ($627-638/mt) ex-works.
Demand in the local Italian flat steel market remains generally weak, but there is a growing perception in the market that the EU's definitive safeguard measures - with the implementation of definitive quotas as of February 3 - will tighten the supply of flat steel products, and that European producers will increase their prices. At the same time, there are still factors causing uncertainty, such as the slack local consumption and not-so-favorable perspectives for the local Italian economy. As a result, some sources think the Italian flat steel market might stabilize rather than rebound in the coming period.
€1 = $1.13