Like almost all international markets, the longs market in southern Europe has remained rather silent this week. One reason has been the Eid festival (March 31-April 2), which kept most suppliers from Turkey and North Africa out of the market during the first part of the week, while at the same time the steel market remained in wait-and-see mode before Trump's announcement regarding import tariffs. In the meantime, local longs prices in Italy have risen slightly, whereas import prices have followed different trends depending on the origin.
During a press conference on April 2, Trump announced baseline tariffs of 10 percent on all imported products, but these tariffs stand at 20 percent for European origin goods. According to many market sources, however, these new measures do not include steel products. The news, in fact, did not upset Italian operators, who said they were more affected by the change in EU safeguard measures. In fact, Egypt will now have to face its weaker competitiveness in the European market, having been assigned a separate quota for rebar (27,568 mt) and wire rod (100,498 mt). Nonetheless, the actual consequences of these developments will become clear in several months’ time.
Long product demand has remained stable at decent levels, while the only change in market fundamentals is the drop in energy prices, supported by renewables and lower gas consumption by private citizens with the arrival of the warmer weather.
In the local Italian rebar market, the desired prices remained at €340/mt ex-works base (€605/mt ex-works including regular extras) with some deals confirmed, but most sales have been closed between €300/mt and €320/mt ex-works base (€565-585/mt ex-works including regular extras), increasing by about €10-20/mt compared to last week. "We are laying the ground for May," a source at an Italian steel mill said, adding, "We are trying to adapt to the expected increase in [Italian] scrap prices, which I assume will rise by at least €10/mt after production stoppages."
As for wire rod, sources reported there are no changes compared to last week’s prices, and the market seems to have accepted the levels of €635-650/mt delivered for drawing quality and €605-620/mt delivered for mesh grade wire rod.
On the export side, a market source reported rebar from Greece at around €600/mt FOB and wire rod at around €590/mt FOB, showing an increase of €5/mt on the lower end of the range and a stable trend week on week, respectively.
Finally, wire rod imports from Turkey have been reported at €560-570/mt CFR, while rebar imports have been reported at €555-560/mt CFR, although €550/mt CFR seems a more viable level under the current market conditions. These levels are slightly down compared to last week. Rebar from Egypt has been priced at €535-540/mt CFR, with wire rod at €550/mt CFR. Rebar is down slightly compared to last week, whereas wire rod is unchanged on dollar basis but down €10/mt week on week on euro basis due to currency fluctuations. Import offers of wire rod from Indonesia stand at €530/mt CFR, up by €15/mt week on week, and import offers from Vietnam stand at €560-570/mt CFR. All prices are calculated based on the $1 = €0.91 exchange rate (April 3).