Activity in the southern European longs market is still sluggish this week, while producers are hoping that the bottom has been reached. Indeed, the worst seems to be over, but several stoppages are expected during summer and then prices could rebound over September.
In Italy, local rebar appears to have remained stable in mills’ offers at around €420/mt ex-works base (€685/mt ex-works including regular extras), although buyer demand is lower, bringing the tradable price level to around €390-410/mt ex-works base (€655-675/mt ex-works including regular extras). Wire rod SAE1006 offers are at €600/mt delivered, compared with the €600-610/mt delivered range from last week.
Wire rod in Spain is also almost stable at €570-575/mt delivered and is unlikely to fall beyond that, according to sources. “At the moment it will not drop,” commented a Spanish trader. “I think they will try to go up or at least remain stable.”
On the export side, ex-Italy rebar offers were reported at €540-550/mt FOB (down from last week's €560/mt FOB), but with no confirmation of concluded deals, while drawing quality wire rod appears to be around €620-630/mt delivered in Europe.
Ex-Spain rebar offers increased by €20/mt to €570-590/mt FOB. Ex-Greece offers were reported at €590-610/mt FOB for rebar and €610-630/mt FOB for wire rod, compared to last week’s respective €610/mt FOB and €630/mt FOB.
In the import segment, a source commented on how imports in Spain are absent due to extra costs: “There are no imports because prices from third countries are the same as local ones if you include unloading and logistics costs, so customers prefer the domestic market.”
Ex-Algeria offers were reported at $585/mt FOB for rebar (down $10/mt week-on-week) and $597/mt FOB for wire rod. The prices correspond to about €566/mt CFR Southern Europe and €577/mt CFR, respectively.
The offers from Egypt, however, are stable at $570-580/mt FOB for both rebar and wire rod (€550-560/mt CFR).