Italian longs mills implement August stoppages

Most Italian long product mills will implement maintenance stoppages starting this week as the holiday season starts for the sector’s traditional August break, sources close to the mills tell Kallanish. Together with steelmakers, scrap merchants in the country will also perform maintenance lasting for 2-3 weeks.

Merchant bar producer Beltrame will stop between 6 and 22 August, and Riva on 7-29 August. Rebar maker Feralpi will meanwhile only stop for a week on 16-22 August, and on 9-15 August at its Calvisano subsidiary. The steelmaker is said to have full order books, particularly for the export market.

Duferco will shut down on 13-22 August, Alfa Acciai on 5-22 August, and Valsabbia will implement stoppages starting at the end of this week until 29 August. Dalmine will also shut down on 8-22 August, sources say.

The longs market in Italy languished in July, with reduced demand and declining scrap prices. Distributors and rebar buyers adopted a wait-and-see attitude and some sellers complained about not reaching their sales targets for the month. Prices remained mostly stable last month, with some price decline for wire rod driven by strong import pressure (see Kallanish passim).

Natalia Capra France