The downward price trend recorded last week in the European long steel market has continued this week as demand in the finished steel segment is showing no sign of improvement.
Italian rebar prices have marked a further decline compared to last week, meeting some players’ forecasts. “[Rebar] price keeps falling. It was €270/mt ex-works base for everyone on September 16, but at this level it is already hard to collect orders. The market will slide again,” an Italian rebar trader commented. The abovementioned level translates to €535/mt ex-works including regular extras. “We have already registered a €40/mt decline since the beginning of the month,” a spokesperson from an Italian mill commented, adding, “If this trend continues, customers will inevitably wait to place orders.” Despite this, the rebar segment is apparently performing better in Italy than in other European countries, such as Germany, where “[Rebar] consumption has declined by 50 percent in the last three years,”, the same source noted.
In the wire rod segment, official prices for September in Italy have been reported at €585-600/mt delivered for drawing quality wire rod and €570-585/mt for mesh quality wire rod, down by €15/mt and €10/mt respectively compared to previous official prices and down by €10/mt and €5/mt compared to previous expected prices. However, according to one source, actual prices are around €10-15/mt lower than the indicated levels. Wire rod demand remains stable at a low level, and, even though there are hopes for a recovery, an Italian mill stated that the current conditions pave the way for unchanged prices in October.
Overall, the European longs market reports a cautious but nervous attitude, citing the uncertainty coming from new safeguard measures on imports and the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), of which “nobody understands the actual consequences in terms of cost”, as an Italian source said.
As for exports, Italy reports weak demand from central Europe, and Turkey’s substantial absence from the market is perceivable. Rebar export prices from Spain to UK ports, in the meantime, have remained unchanged week on week at €540/mt FOB.
Finally, rebar import prices from Turkey have been reported at €480-485/mt CFR, down by €5-10/mt week on week. The decline was just €5/mt on the higher end of the range compared to last week, because the exchange rate with the US dollar has moved from 1.17 to 1.18. Wire rod prices of the same origin have been reported at around €490/mt CFR, also down by €5-10/mt week on week and by €5/mt on the higher end of the range due to the exchange rate variation.
€1 = $1.18 (European Central Bank, September 18)
