Local Italian scrap market sees some upticks in prices, tension emerges

The Italian scrap market has undergone some small upward adjustments in prices in the past week. Some steel producers have made minimal changes to their scrap purchase prices to align with market levels, while keeping their price lists unchanged overall.

Traders are continuing to report scarce scrap availability - especially for busheling scrap - resulting from the slowdown in sectors such as metal manufacturing and automotive, and said that occasional increases in the range of €5-10/mt have been granted, even though not by all producers and neither for all scrap categories.

At the same time, many Italian steel producers have preferred to purchase scrap abroad at unchanged prices. "We have acquired most of our needs abroad at unchanged prices," a source at an Italian steel mill said, "also because we expect to exit the market in about one month for the winter break."

Other steel producers, especially in northeastern Italy, have kept their purchase prices unchanged and they have no intention of increasing them.

Scrap demand from mills continues to remain at a decent level, and one source said he has sensed "tension in the market. It seems that suppliers are expecting further increases".

Regarding the outcome of Federacciai’s annual meeting, one market player on the sales side stated, "Energy targets are realistic, but scrap targets are not", while another source commented, "The problem [in the market] is not so much the scrap price, but scrap consumption."

Following partial adjustments, scrap price levels in the local market in Italy this week have been reported as follows:

Prices include delivery and exclude VAT.