Mood remains negative in Iocal Italian scrap market

The downtrend in the local Italian scrap market continued in the second half of June, as steel demand has remained on the low side. Some Italian producers are planning to cut their capacity utilization rates, while others are announcing production halts for the holiday season. One Italian producer is expected to stop for three weeks, while another is planning for an eight-week holiday. “In just two weeks, prices have declined by €80-100/mt in Italy. There is no good news for now. Due to the holiday season, we are not expecting demand to recover until late September or early October,” an Italian source commented. Having said that, there are concerns in the EU in general about the natural gas supply in the winter season. Since the EU is relatively dependent on Russian natural gas, there is a risk of steel mills being asked to shut down starting from late September or early October. Under the current conditions, the negative sentiment in the local Italian scrap market has continued, despite the recovery observed in Turkey’s import scrap quotations. “We need to monitor and see if the uptrend caused by Turkish demand is here to stay, or if it is temporary,” a source added.

Currently, average spot prices in the local Italian scrap market are as shown in the table:

Prices include delivery and exclude VAT.