In the Southern European wire rod market, offers and assessments were stable.
Fastmarkets price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) domestic, exw Italy was €580-625 ($659-710) per tonne on Wednesday, widening downward by €10 per tonne from €590-625 per tonne the previous week.
First-hand deals were reported across the Italian rebar market at €580-620 per tonne exw.
Demand was reported to be slow in the market because of the seasonal Easter holidays at the end of April and continuing in the first week of May, Fastmarkets heard.
“Prices have started weakening and there is bearish sentiment regarding future trends as energy costs are down around 25% this month and international scrap prices have also dropped considerably,” one buyer source told Fastmarkets.
“The last week of April was slow because of festive days and this week we will have another long weekend so it is highly probable that the mills will drop their prices further from beginning of next week,” the buyer source added.
“The rebar price is still decreasing. April is a slow month because of too many festival days. Customers’ expectation is for a continuing downtrend next week,” a second buyer source said.
Scrap costs have dropped since mid-April due to slow consumption for finished steel in the domestic rebar market combined with ongoing uncertainty around US tariff rates.
As a result, customers remained in wait-and-see mode.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of its daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was $318.00 per tonne on Wednesday, down from $318.14 per tonne a week earlier and down from $375.05 per tonne a month earlier.
Meanwhile, rebar export prices were reported at €580 per tonne.
“Export orders are very low because Turkey rebar prices are more competitive. Cyprus and Greece are the major exporting markets now for Italian rebar producers,” the second buyer source said.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Spain was €610-620 per tonne on Wednesday, stable week on week.
The market in Spain was reported to be quiet with zero trade occurring because of a collapse of the electricity grid in the Iberian Peninsula on April 28.
“The Spanish market has been dead this week because of the electricity grid failing. We are still trying to understand what has happened and no one cares about anything going on in the market,” a producer source told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel wire rod (mesh quality), domestic, delivered Southern Europe was €605-620 per tonne on Wednesday, stable week on week.
Published by: India-Inés Levy
