According to market sources, Italian producers' domestic flat steel prices have decreased slightly compared to the period before the Christmas and New Year festivities. Currently, Italian producers' domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) base prices are at €460-470/mt ($529-541/mt) ex-works, while their cold rolled coil (CRC) prices are at €555-565/mt ($638-650/mt) ex-works and their hot dip galvanized (HDG) prices are at €560-570/mt ($644-656/mt) ex-works. Market sources state that producers are generally unwilling to give offers as they are waiting for greater clarity about the EU definitive safeguard measures that should come into force in early February. Meanwhile, domestic prices are still trending down due to low demand and competitive import offers such as those for Turkish HRC, which are currently below €450/mt ($518/mt) CFR, and could decrease further. For these reasons, local buyers are not in any hurry to purchase at the moment and a wait-and-see mood still prevails. According to market sources, local Italian flat steel prices will decrease in the coming weeks, but the size of the likely decrease is currently unclear - with predictions varying from €5/mt to €20/mt. For the coming months, based on the new EU import quotas, local flat steel users believe there will not be any shortage problem for HRC, while HDG will be the most affected by the new measures. According to market sources, CRC will be partially affected due to the fact that India and South Korea have been given low quotas, and even the overall global quota seems limited.
€1 = $1.15