As expected, local Italian rebar prices hit bottom at €435/mt ($566/mt) ex-works and have started to move back up in the past week. Local demand is still weak, but Italian producers are not willing to incur further losses. Since scrap prices continue to hold firm, domestic rebar mills prefer to reduce or halt production rather than recording further losses as in the last two months.
Producers have thus been successful in their efforts to promote a recovery in rebar prices. Domestic mills' local rebar offers are currently at an average of €455/mt ($592/mt) ex-works, though no large transaction volumes have been reported. At the same time, some domestic producers have even started to offer rebar at €465/mt ($605/mt), though they have failed to collect orders.
Meanwhile, on the export side, Italian rebar offers are at €465/mt FOB. Nevertheless, SteelOrbis has learned that foreign demand is very weak and that Algerian buyers are not purchasing. Some Italian producers had been seeking prices as high as €475/mt ($618/mt) FOB, but without achieving success. Large volumes of rebar are arriving in Algeria at the present time, and so it is very unlikely that prices will rise.
€1 = $1.3