Rebar prices increased further in the Italian market in the past week, with transaction prices increasing from €610/mt to €620-640/mt ex-works in the latest deals. According to sources, local mills have suspended their sales yesterday. "Even if we increased prices by €20/mt, orders continued to arrive," explained the representative of an Italian steel producer. "In other words, the price leverage was not enough to stop the material outflows. Scrap prices are increasing, and we need to protect our stocks, otherwise we risk finding ourselves with no material in fifteen days," the source added. According to most market players, the imbalance between supply and demand will continue in the coming months, and prices are expected to increase further. According to one producer, prices will be above €660/mt ex-works in the next round of deals, and may even get close to the €1,000/mt level in June. "This situation is going to last, as it originates from afar, in 2018 when safeguard measures were imposed in the EU and imports began decreasing. In 2019 stocks decreased, but that year was not good. Since the second half of 2020, prices started to increase owing the lack of supply."
The same situation applies to the Italian wire rod market, where prices increased from €660-680/mt to €690/mt, both delivered. After that, local producers suspended their sales. For the same reasons, Italian long steel producers are not offering material abroad at the moment. "Some of our competitors are offering at cheap prices, but in fact they don't have material to sell," one producer told SteelOrbis.