After the €5-10/mt ($6-11/mt) drop registered in prices at the beginning of February, by the end of February local scrap prices in Italy started to increase and are still on an upward trend, reaching to January levels or maybe higher. Market sources say that scrap prices have risen due to the resumption of production caused by the rising downstream demand, particularly for flat products. Under these circumstances, many distributors are increasing their stocks, leading producers to increase their orders.
There are also other factors that are giving strength to scrap prices, such as the increases seen in iron ore and billet prices and the release of rebar import licenses in Algeria.
On the supply side, the situation is stable but the increasing demand makes the actual level quite tight.
In the meantime the spot prices have increased by €10-15/mt ($11-17/mt) during the last ten days to the values reported in the below table, but many market players report that another €10/mt ($11/mt) increase may arrive soon.
Average spot prices in the local Italian scrap market are as follows:
Quality |
Average spot price (€/mt) |
Turnings (E5) |
130 ($143/mt) |
HMS (E1/E3) |
165-170 ($182-187/mt) |
Shredded scrap (E40) |
180 ($198/mt) |
Busheling (E8) |
175 ($193/mt) |
Prices include delivery and exclude VAT.
Speaking about European suppliers, contract volumes requested by Italian customers are still a little bit weaker than for Italian spot market, but sources refer that this situation will end in a short time, with prices already reached to January levels.
€1 = $1.10