According to market sources, the situation in the Italian flat steel market is generally positive, as demand is good in the downstream market, while distributors and service centers have strong order books. Also producers - not only Italian producers, but European too - have plenty of orders, with some of them having started to sell for December deliveries, while others are a bit behind in terms of delivery times. Nevertheless, sources say that transactions between producers and distributors are negligible. Distributors are not in a rush to buy, and they are not willing to pay the higher prices that producers have been seeking lately.
Meanwhile, producers can rely on the fact that import offers have virtually disappeared in the view of the imposition of definitive antidumping duties on hot rolled coil (HRC) originating from Brazil, Russia, Ukraine and Iran. However, a source has told SteelOrbis that the risk of protectionism is that prices in the EU market may not match with international price trends in the future. In fact, this is already happening, as prices have already been slipping in foreign markets such as China.
Currently, base prices in the local Italian HRC market are at €520-540/mt ($614-637/mt) ex-works.
€1 = $1.18