Domestic rebar prices in Italy have trended sideways in the past week at €520-530/mt ($608-620/mt) ex-works after increasing for four consecutive weeks and reaching the highest levels year-to-date.
As reported previously, the main reason for the upward movement in the local Italian rebar market has been the scarce availability of several diameters at local producers, a problem that is still felt. Nonetheless, market sources say that there is balance between stocks and the orders received by Italian mills. According to a few market sources, domestic rebar prices could increase further due to the safeguard provisional measures imposed by the European Commission, even though the import quota in the EU should be sufficient at least for the remainder of this year. Other sources believe that prices could soften after the summer holidays as current demand is not better than it was a month and a half ago, i.e., before the price rises started to occur.
This forecast is supported by the fact that the difference between Turkish rebar prices ($550/mt FOB) and Italian rebar prices have reached high levels, say the same sources. Currently, due to the above-mentioned availability problems, Italian producers are not offering rebar for shipment by sea, although they are offering limited volumes for shipment by truck at €530/mt ($620/mt) ex-works.
€1 = $1.17