Over the past week, prices in the local Italian hot rolled coil (HRC) market have decreased slightly by €10/mt to €510-520/mt ($602-614/mt) ex-works. Market sources indicate that trading activity between local producers and distributors has been weak so far in October, while sales by distributors to end-users have also slackened recently. For this reason, some service centers and distributors have reduced their prices and margins in order to increase their sales. Meanwhile, producers are supported by the EU antidumping duties on HRC imports from Brazil, Iran, Russia and Ukraine. As a result, they are unwilling to decrease their offer prices even though buying activity is slack. Accordingly, market players do not expect to see a significant decline in prices in the short term.
€1 = $1.18