Southern European rebar mills start current week with softer prices

Last week, some Italian rebar producers had concluded some transactions at the level of €510/mt ($722/mt) FOB. On the other hand, this week, Italian mills' rebar export offers for various markets have shown some softening and declined to €500-510/mt ($708-722/mt) FOB. In this week's Italian domestic rebar market, while the base price for rebar stands at €270/mt ($383/mt) ex-works, trading activity for rebar remains very low.
 
In the Algerian rebar market, following the latest transactions concluded at €530-535/mt ($751-758/mt) CFR, buyers are observed to have slowed down their booking activity, since they anticipate a decline in prices.
 
In the Greek domestic rebar market, demand is still very slow. It is reported that steel mills' offers for large volume orders to traders may remain below the mainstream price levels. In the local Greek rebar market, prices are currently standing at €530-560/mt ($751-793/mt) for deliveries to customer; however, for orders with smaller tonnages, producers may push up their prices. Despite the prevailing slowness in Greek rebar mills' export markets, it is known that these producers are refusing bids at €500/mt ($709/mt) FOB.
 
In the Bulgarian domestic market, rebar demand is quite slow and transaction volumes are getting smaller. While Bulgarian mills may give aggressive offers to their domestic market in order to also attract end-users, it is reported that these mills are offering the same price levels to both traders and end-users, depending on the order volume. In Bulgaria, domestic rebar prices stand at BGN 940/mt ($681/mt) CPT.
 
€1 = $1.416
$1 = BGN 1.381