On the southern European side, Spanish, Greek and Italian mills' rebar export offers have shown some variation, while prices are mainly in the range of €320-340/mt FOB. Also, €340/mt has continued to be the target level, while it is reported that the most recent sales have been concluded at €320/mt FOB. Southern European mills have continued to give offers to the North African and Mediterranean markets. Demand showed no change again in the Algerian market last week.
As for the southern European domestic markets, in Italy prices have indicated an increase to the level of €340-350/mt ex-works. The reason behind this increase is the same one which has been evident for quite a while now: increased scrap prices rather than strengthening rebar demand. In the Portuguese and Greek domestic markets, prices have remained more or less the same, while end-user demand has continued to stand at low levels. Meanwhile, in the Spanish domestic market, the recent price increases announced by producers have finally been achieved.
Looking at eastern Europe, the increasing trend in Bulgarian mills' prices has continued to be observed. However, it will become clearer in the coming days how the softening in import rebar prices will affect the prices of the Bulgarian mills. Also, Romanian mills have tried to raise their prices for the local market. In both countries, mills' pricing policies have continued to vary according to customers and tonnages.
In Germany, it is heard that mills will increase their prices after the summer holidays, mainly due to the increase in scrap prices and the rising rebar prices in other countries. Sales prices in the country in question indicated no change last week.
In general, an upward trend based on rising scrap prices has been observed in the European rebar markets ahead of the holiday. Also, national markets in the region are influenced by price rises in their neighbors' markets. No improvement has been seen on the demand side, and it seems that the expectations of a continuation of the rising trend in Europe have barely had any affect on demand levels so far.