Italian rebar transaction prices are holding stable week-on-week despite producers continuing to push hard for further increases, Kallanish learns. The market appears to have reached a standstill, with buyers refusing to pay the new asking price of €440/tonne ($517.55/t) base ex-works.
Multiple buyers say they are unable to pass increases on downstream. One construction company has decided to postpone future building projects due to sharply rising raw material costs, including for steel and cement. The company says it cannot absorb an average cost increase of around 40% and is scaling back activity in an effort to preserve a slim margin.
The rapid succession of price increases in Italy following the US-Iran conflict has left Italian rebar among the most expensive in Europe.
Large buyers have stepped back from the market, relying on their stocks. Smaller buyers continued to purchase until last week at €410-420/t base ex-works, limiting their purchases to a few truckloads at a time to cover immediate needs only. Including size extras of €260-270/t, effective transaction prices for Italian rebar are currently assessed at €670-680/t ex-works, up from an average of around €540/t at the start of March, sources suggest.
Mills are maintaining an uncompromising attitude, preferring to lose orders rather than decrease prices, even as sales volumes remain tight. Sources note that if sales continue at current low levels, producers will eventually be forced to reduce output.
Many buyers are questioning how long mills can maintain such rigidity. “There is a will to buy and work, but the market is now stuck and we don’t even know if we will manage to pass on the €410/t downstream,” one source comments.
