After increasing by almost €200/mt since early April, rebar prices have slowed down their uptrend in the Italian market in the past few weeks, due to lower buying activity.
Domestic prices have trended sideways in the past week, at €750-760/mt ex-works. However, most market players doubt prices will weaken in the short term. In fact, "a few producers have even expressed their intention to raise them by €30/mt," one source told SteelOrbis. Supply is still tight locally, especially for smaller diameters, while demand is strong in the rest of Europe, and scrap prices remain firm domestically. As reported previously, in this context, Italian rebar producers are not engaging in sales by ship, while they are enjoying good sales in Europe at prices in line with their domestic offers.