European long steel markets have shown a slight upward tension on prices in the past week, but no deals have actually been concluded at higher levels.
In the local rebar market in Italy, final customers are still buying at previous levels of around €260-280/mt ex-works base (€525-545/mt ex-works including regular extras). Although some producers are trying to ask for significant increases, even by about €50/mt higher than this level, the market seems to be responding coldly, and there are no confirmations of orders closed at higher prices. "Someone with a strong need to buy may have accepted €300mt [ex-works base], but not more," an Italian source said. "Producers seem determined to maintain these prices [higher by €50/mt] while waiting to finish previous deliveries. They remain rigid, and customers are perplexed," said another source, because rebar demand is not that brilliant at the moment. According to SteelOrbis' assessment, some of the reasons behind these increase requests could lie in the fact that market players would have taken advantage of the partial absence of a competitor due to the accident that occurred at the end of October at one of its plants.
However, a source at that same manufacturer affirmed, "The consequences of this accident on the market have been minimal and repair works are proceeding. The plant should be fully operational again by next week."
In the Italian wire rod market, November prices have consolidated at the levels previously mentioned by SteelOrbis, i.e., €565-580/mt delivered for drawing quality and €545-560/mt delivered for mesh grade, while the first expectations for December show attempts to increase prices by about €5/mt for both categories. In central and eastern Europe and in Germany, on the other hand, wire rod prices have consolidated at €565-580/mt delivered and €575-590/mt delivered, respectively, in November, whereas wire rod prices for mesh grade wire rod have been consolidated at €560-570/mt delivered and €550-565/mt delivered, respectively.
Rebar export prices from Spanish ports to Ireland and the United Kingdom have been reported by some sources at €570/mt FOB, up €30/mt compared to the last price recorded last week by SteelOrbis, when some discounts of €10-20/mt were also considered possible.
Finally, in the import segment, rebar and wire rod prices from Turkey have been reported at approximately €515/mt CFR and €525/mt CFR respectively, up by approximately €10/mt compared to last week due to the change in the euro-dollar exchange rate, which has moved to 1.15, and the increase of approximately $5/mt in FOB prices week on week.
