Domestic prices of long products have increased in Italy in recent weeks, mainly driven by the rise in costs. Currently, local producers are offering rebar at €750-760/mt ex-works, compared to the €720-730/mt levels recorded three weeks ago. However, a source said, "No one is buying at the moment after having stocked up at lower prices" in the past few weeks. According to the manager of a national long steel producer, the €760/mt level "will probably be the transaction price in December, even if scrap prices don't increase significantly. This is because there is a shortage of material, so much so that we have decided to increase our prices to protect our warehouses." The low availability of material, explained various sources, is mainly due to production slowdowns caused by the recent explosion in energy costs. Meanwhile, local drawing quality wire rod prices have reached the levels of €770-790/mt delivered after a slight decline in mid-October.
Several players believe that long steel prices in the Italian domestic market could be supported in the coming months by an increase in export sales after the news of an agreement between the US and the EU on Section 232 duties. "From the first information that has been circulating, it seems that the quotas for Italians will be quite small. However, we will enjoy a "reflex" advantage, because the shares assigned to our competitors from Spain and Portugal will be higher and therefore we should be able to sell to those markets in which they will begin to leave some space," a producer commented. Prices in Italy's rebar export sales recently hit €680-690/mt FOB for November shipments, after gradually increasing from the €640/mt FOB level recorded in late September and early October. For the moment "I haven't heard of any orders that have been closed for December," underlined the same source, adding that "foreign customers have bought in recent weeks and are well covered after a period in which they had avoided buying and their warehouses were empty."