Italian scrap market strong despite global headwinds

Scrap prices have remained strong in the Italian domestic market in the past two weeks, despite the downtrend of import scrap prices in Turkey, local sources told SteelOrbis. After restocking in the first half of March, domestic mills have slowed down their purchases, and are now watching closely the future developments globally. “There are many factors in play, such as the strong depreciation of Turkish lira and the Liberty Steel crisis,” one source underlined. However, the general feeling is that scrap prices are close to bottoming out in Turkey, as Turkish mills will need to order new cargoes soon. For this reason, “Italian mills haven’t exerted strong pressures on local scrap prices so far,” the same source explained. In conclusion, the overall positive situation is expected to continue in the Italian scrap market in April, with only slight price changes predicted by most sources, and larger price increases in the global scrap market. In the Italian market, supply has increased slightly recently, due to the restart of some productions, although it has remained balanced compared to demand. However, demand has been stronger for higher-quality scrap, and lower for lower-quality material due to the fact that rebar sales have remained slack, one scrap trader stressed.

Scrap prices in the Italian scrap market are at the following levels:

Prices include delivery and exclude VAT.