According to market sources, flat steel base prices in the local Italian market are have decreased by €20-30/mt as compared to September levels to €500-515/mt (580-598$/mt) for hot rolled coil (HRC), €575-595/mt (667-690$/mt) for cold rolled coil (CRC) and €590-615/mt (684-713$/mt) for hot dip galvanized (HDG), all ex-works, due to very weak end-users demand since the beginning of October.
Meanwhile, in the past few weeks local distributors have reduced their prices by a larger extent due to scarce sales and the expectations of further and more substantial decreases from producers. However, local producers are not willing to decrease their prices further, as they hope for a revival of orders from service centres and pipe producers,that in the coming weeks will need to buy material to be shipped in January. The most optimistic sources think that producers may even increase their prices slightly for next-year deliveries if their orders will be decent enough. Concerning the last weeks of this year, most sources believe that local flat steel prices will trend sideways. Meanwhile, import offers are not competitive enough to spur a strong interest among local buyers, therefore they are not pressuring on domestic prices.
€1 = $1.16