For the last two weeks the Italian merchant bar market has been moving on a stable trend.
The players active in the market report that there are two main reasons behind the current stability. Firstly, demand; the high quotation levels and the problems experienced as regards credit lines have caused a slowdown in demand coming from stockists and distributors, who now prefer to be more cautious in their approach to the market. Traders' main priority these days appears to be to purchase just the minimum quantities necessary for their daily activities and thereby to reach the summer holiday shutdown (end of July) with medium to low stock levels. The traders' will thus await the September reopening of the market in order to gauge the new price trends. As regards real demand, activity does not seem exceptional.
Besides the issue of consumption, the downward adjustment of scrap prices also helped put the brakes on merchant bar prices, having a particularly strong psychological impact.
For the weeks ahead, expectations are for a continuation of the current trend, possibly with slight fluctuations in prices.