Industry participants have remained largely absent from the market because of summer closures across Europe. Mills across most of Europe are expected to reopen in the first week of September.
The few sources who had returned to market reported bearish sentiment regarding both demand and prices in the coming month.
“The market is very quiet. Mills are not expected to drop prices further unless scrap goes down also. They would rather stop production,” a trader source in Germany said.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €575-605 ($627-659) per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged since July 19.
Seasonality and depressed demand also resulted in extremely quiet conditions in the Northern European rebar market. As a result, prices were unchanged.
At the same time, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (mesh quality), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €570-610 per tonne, flat since July 12.
