Some German buyers of rolled products are taking advantage of the pre-annual price cuts at Italian rolling mills, especially in the south of the country, while others consider such purchases profitable.
The Italian reported that domestic prices for S275 from the factory dropped to 720 euros per ton (820 US dollars per ton). Although this could theoretically mean an increase in the price of the S355 by 20 euros per tonne, the offers for foreign customers may differ significantly from domestic offers.
The manager of a German distributor on the north coast claims that the Italian offers do not make sense to him at transportation prices of 100 euros per ton. However, he knows some who have made similar deals. For some equipment manufacturers, refractory cutting materials in Italy are offered without additional processing costs and, therefore, can be used in some cases.
"They'll do it once or twice, but then they'll come back to us," says the manager to Callanishou, describing the buying behavior as short-term opportunism. "Italians tend to fill their order portfolios before the summer holidays, and after that they will receive 100 euros more per ton," he says.
This observation is shared by a source at the Northwestern European plant, who notes that Italy's lucrative offers are having an impact on northern plants. These plants "need to adapt a bit so as not to leave the market too much to Italians," he says.
For most of June, the supply of plants in northwestern Europe ranged widely from 800 to 850 euros per ton of S355. Last week, it was heard that these plants are aiming for a noticeable price increase of 50-70 euros per ton, despite the continued decline in demand. Consequently, these efforts to raise prices will not be confirmed by deals for some time.
At the moment, due to the pre-year effect, some offers are actually going in the opposite direction, falling below the 800 euro per ton mark.
This could compete with Italy's offers to Germany, which, according to the Bavarian buyer, cost 750 euros per ton plus 60 euros for transportation. But he notes that "we, the inhabitants of the south, largely focus on Italy, and hardly a German."
Author: Christian Kel
Kallanish.com
