Rebar prices have increased in the Italian domestic market for the third week in a row. Local producers are now offering 12-28 mm rebar at €500-510/mt ($585-597/mt) ex-works, after the market absorbed the €490/mt level last week. For a further comparison, domestic prices were at €455-460/mt in the first half of June.
As reported previously, Italian rebar producers gained confidence after almost completely filling up their order books for the export markets. This, together with the slight recovery of local scrap prices, has pushed them to increase their domestic prices even though domestic demand is still low. Moreover, according to market sources, several diameters are lacking in the market, and this situation could be exacerbated by the stoppage of Odolo, Brescia-based producer IRO, that could last one month, after the company detected radioactivity in its scrap at the end of last week. For these reasons, domestic rebar prices could increase further in the coming week.
€1 = $1.17