The European longs market has remained mostly unchanged this week, as demand is still weak and the market fundamentals have not changed. With Turkey basically remaining on the sidelines and, amid a rather pessimistic market mood, most long product prices in Europe have moved sideways compared to last week.
In Italy, however, local rebar prices have marked a decline by at least €10-20/mt compared to last week, standing at €250-260/mt ex-works base (€515-525/mt ex-works including regular extras), but for orders bigger than 500-1,000 mt or serious buyers, there have also been sales at €240/mt ex-works base (€505/mt ex-works including regular extras). The market reports a slight recovery in demand, with end-customers appreciating the declines, but most players foresee a further price drop in the weeks to come, even if at a slower pace. “The competition is savage. Everyone is trying to go down a little lower,” a spokesperson at an Italian mill said. “This will go on until someone decides to stop production, because we currently have a surplus of rebar in the market and the strategy of lowering scrap prices will only work to a certain extent,” he concluded. Rebar consumers are reporting low inventories, and, as soon as product prices show serious signs of a rebound, they will immediately start their race to purchase in order to avoid further price hikes.
In the wire rod segment in Italy, prices have remained unchanged week on week, and October will probably bring stable prices both for drawing quality and for mesh quality, at €585-600/mt delivered and €570-585/mt delivered, respectively. Demand remains moderate, but the market may have touched the bottom or is very near to it.
In the meantime, two of the main steel producers in Italy have published their financial results for 2024, with different outputs. Sources from both of them, however, have claimed that 2025 is already showing better data compared to last year.
In the export market, rebar prices from Spain to UK ports have been reported at €535/mt FOB, down by €5/mt compared to last week. As for imports, prices for long products from Turkey have also remained sideways both for rebar and wire rod, with no change in the euro-dollar exchange rate. Consequently, rebar and wire rod prices from Turkey to southern Europe ports have been reported at €480-485/mt CFR and around €490/mt CFR, respectively. Finally, ex-Indonesia wire rod prices have been reported at around €460/mt CFR, even though some sources have reported the same material being traded in eastern Europe at €565/mt delivered to customer, custom duty paid. This information, however, could not be verified at the time of publication.
€1 = $1.18
