While demand in the local Italian flat steel market has not recovered fully since the end of summer holidays, domestic flat steel prices in Italy have decreased very slightly in the past ten days.
Currently, Italian producers' domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) base prices are at €540-550/mt ($632-644/mt) ex-works, down €5/mt, while cold rolled coil (CRC) and hot dip galvanized (HDG) prices are at €620-630/mt ($725-737/mt) and €620-635/mt ($725-743/mt) ex-works, down €5/mt and €2.5/mt, respectively, compared to two weeks ago.
Provisional safeguard import quotas in the EU appear to be more than sufficient for the period till 3 February 2019. Meanwhile, flat steel imports are not strong in the domestic Italian market. This is because local buyers prefer buying from local producers at very similar prices but with different service and shipment conditions. Moreover, with the Turkish government recently banning most export proceeds from being held abroad, costs and times are expanding. Therefore, import HRC prices in EU from Turkey - the most important import source for EU – should not decrease to competitive levels, and this is giving support to EU domestic flat steel prices.
€1 = $1.17