European longs prices have been changing in these past few weeks, contrary to what one might expect from a pre-holiday period.
As far as the Italian rebar market is concerned, local offer prices have increased by €40-60/mt compared to last week, and they have been reported at €280-300/mt ex-works base (€545-565 ex-works including regular extras). Many customers have completed their purchases at the previous level of €240/mt ex-works base (€505/mt ex-works including regular extras), but new offers have been negotiated at the higher levels mentioned. According to market players these price increases are due to the fact that several producers have closed their sales and production, reducing supply and pushing prices upwards. "These are the levels from which we will start [sales] again in September," the representative of an Italian steel mill stated.
The situation is opposite in the Italian wire rod market, where prices fell slightly compared to the previous month. Local prices have been reported at €600-615/mt delivered for drawing quality wire rod and €585-600/mt delivered for mesh quality wire rod, compared to the previous €610-620/mt delivered for the former and €590-605/mt delivered for the latter. The decrease might be due to a drop in demand from end users, many of whom are already out of the market for the summer holidays. The representative of a steel mill, however, said he is convinced that prices will improve in September when purchases resume.
In Germany, wire rod prices have been reported at €625-645/mt delivered for drawing quality and €580-600/mt delivered for mesh quality wire rod, while the same prices in Central and Eastern Europe have been reported at €605-620/mt delivered and €585-605/mt delivered, respectively.
Demand in these areas seems slightly better than Italy’s, but in any case "it cannot be defined as exciting", a source said. Several producers are willing to reduce sales prices in order to reach the expected sales volumes in a very unstable market, both in terms of product quality and of the management of bureaucracy related to customs procedures. The outlook does not look positive for the months to come.