Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €630-670 ($718-764) per tonne on Wednesday, widening downward from €635-670 per tonne on May 28.
The highest prices of around €670 per tonne delivered were seen in Netherlands, with a pick-up in buying activity reported. In Austria, prices were in a range of €630-640 per tonne delivered, while levels of up to €645 per tonne delivered were heard in Germany, according to sources.
Offers from most suppliers in Italy were within the range of €550-580 per tonne ex-works, with one supplier reporting €530-550 ex-works being available.
Sources told Fastmarkets that the lower prices were largely due to mills possibly using import billet from Iran, which is traditionally priced lower compared with other suppliers in the market, which gives it a cost advantage over other producers using billet from alternative sources or scarp.
Transactions were reported being concluded within €550-580 per tonne in the week to Wednesday, according to sources on the buy side.
Fastmarkets’ assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Italy, was €550-580 per tonne on Wednesday, narrowing from €540-585 per tonne in the previous week. But the average was only slightly changed to €562.5 per tonne, from €565 per tonne a week ago.
In Spain, tradeable rebar prices corrected slightly to €600 per tonne delivered on June 4, down from €605 per tonne delivered in the previous week.
There had been some improvement in demand, arising from consumption by the construction sector, which is typical for the summer months, sources said, adding that market participants were still cautiously optimistic.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Spain, was €600 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €5 per tonne from €605 per tonne on May 28.
