Europe longs: Mills cut prices to spur sales

Italian longs producers made attempts to stimulate sales in late May through lower prices, but started seeking increases for new deliveries.

The Argus weekly Italian rebar assessment fell by €20/t to €640/t ex-works, with the drawing-quality wire rod index remaining at €650/t delivered.

In the domestic market, Italian mills were willing to sell rebar at about €640/t ex-works for small to medium tonnages, but indicated expectations up to €690/t ex-works for June. Local demand remains slow, but if producers book sufficient tonnages to other markets, it might support a rebound, an Italian source said. Prices for drawing-quality wire rod in the domestic market remained in the range of €640-660/t delivered. If demand remains so low, mills might opt to cut production further, another Italian source said. Italian suppliers were accumulating significant stocks as they increased production after a reduction in input costs, anticipating demand to rebound after the Easter holiday, a European source said.

In the nearby markets, offers of Italian rebar were reported at €610/t delivered to Germany late last week, with sales heard to central Europe at €540-550/t fca. Small tonnages of rebar in coils were available at about €670-680/t delivered from German mills, but demand for larger lots was extremely low. Uzbek offers for rebar to Baltic customers have been coming in at €630/t delivered since late last week.

In the Balkan market, regional suppliers cut prices to €590-600/t delivered and cfr at a time of high competition. Italian spools were quoted at €550-560/t fob to Romania.

At a time of increased interest from European buyers and low competition with Turkish and other north African suppliers, some Egyptian mills were heard indicating higher targets for rebar this week, up to $590/t fob, while others were still willing to sell at about $565/t fob to Europe and cheaper to other markets. Egyptian wire rod offers were reported at $565-570/t fob to European buyers. Turkish rebar and wire rod prices stood at $630/t fob and $640/t fob, respectively, with up to $10/t discounts deemed available.