Italian rebar producers have raised their offers this week. They are now asking for a price of €590/mt ex-works, against the €570-580/mt ex-works levels they had been targeting two weeks ago. Late last week, Italian mills closed their sales having concluded sales in the past month at prices ranging from €550/mt to €570/mt ex-works. "We have suspended our rebar sales as we have achieved our budget target for the month of April. This has never happened before," the manager of an Italian long steel producer told SteelOrbis: hence, the decision by Italian mills to raise their offers to €590/mt ex-works this week. "Demand has been good and scrap seems stable, so we believe the rebar market needs to go upwards," the same source added. Meanwhile, export activities have remained generally subdued due to low demand and high competition. A few sales have been reported to countries such as Romania and the US, but the volumes were not significant. "We are not offering rebar for sale by sea at the moment. We closed our latest orders at $640/mt FOB," one producer commented.