Domestic rebar and wire rod demand has been relatively moderate across the EU. The level of demand has turned out to be not high enough for the price increases earlier announced by producers to be fully accepted and, therefore, in some countries, discounts have been provided. In other regions, the level of demand, according to sources, is more or less “balanced with a reduced output from local mills, but prices are slowly losing ground every week.” In the meantime, import offers are still quite competitive, specifically those coming from nearby Algeria.
In Italy, local rebar prices are at €700-720/mt ex-works base, which makes around €960-980/mt ex-works if regular extras are included. In the wire rod segment, the local offers for SAE1006 grade are at €960-1,000/mt DPP northern Italy, €40-50/mt down over the past two weeks. In the meantime, Italy’s export offers to European countries are more competitive than domestic offers, at around €775/mt delivered to Albania. In Poland, the latest offers from Italy have been heard at €750/mt CPT, SteelOrbis has learned, while in Germany prices have been reported at around €750-760/mt delivered. For distant markets, Italy is offering at €750-770/mt FOB for both rebar and wire rod.
Spanish longs producers are offering rebar to the domestic market at €940/mt CPT, €10-20/mt down over two weeks. At the same time, rebar offers from Spain to the UK have been reported at €730-740/mt CFR, sources report. Spain’s domestic SAE1006 wire rod prices are at €950-980/mt DDP, SteelOrbis has learned.
Greece has been offering rebar and wire rod locally at €980/mt and €900/mt ex-works, respectively. “Wire rod importers are plentiful when it comes to non-EU countries, which means aggressive import prices. On the contrary, rebar imports from non-EU countries are almost none,” a trader said, commenting on wire rod prices being lower than rebar offers.
In the import segment, there are rather aggressive import offers, particularly coming from the MENA region. Specifically, one of the Algerian mills is offering at around €740-750/mt CFR to western EU countries, while a sale was reportedly closed at €730/mt CFR Rotterdam. In the southern part of the EU, there have been deals heard from Algeria at €715-720/mt CFR Italy versus €730-735/mt CFR in the initial offers. In addition, ex-UAE offers have been at €720-725/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned. No fresh offers have been reported from Asian countries, while last week Vietnam and Indonesia were at €670-675/mt CFR.