More declines seen in Italian scrap prices

ROME (Scrap Monster): According to industry sources, Italian scrap prices continued to decline during the current week, in comparison to the previous. The average scrap price has dropped by €5/tonne ($5.5/t) during the week. Further scrap sale has weakened further, following sharp fall in demand.

The mills in the country will start temporary suspension of operations on account of regular maintenance works starting next week. These summer shutdowns may lead to further drop in scrap prices. The shutdowns may extend to three weeks to one month. The prices are expected to stabilize once the mills restart their operations.

It is extremely difficult to predict what will happen to South European scrap prices in the forthcoming months. The scrap prices will depend much on Chinese billets and Turkish scrap, traders believe. Meantime, traders rule out the possibilities of a sudden rebound in scrap prices, mainly on the back of continuing weakness in raw material prices worldwide. However, prices are likely to stabilize in August or early September.

Incidentally, Turkish scrap prices have by and large shown early signs of stabilizing around €210/t CIF Italy.

Meantime, domestic prices of new arisings (grade E8) in Italy were in the range €230-235/t ($254-260/t) delivered. Shredded scrap (E40) prices averaged between €230/t and €240/t. Demolition scrap (E3) prices held in the range from €210/t to 225/t. Also, Heavy Demolition scrap (E1) prices ranged between €215/t and €225/t.