Ruggero Alocci says that “it looks like positive for all the steel industry and recycling operators, but it is not clear if we are now facing different fundamentals, in comparison with the ones we lived some months ago”.
He points out further that in Italy the scrap prices rose around 30€ at the end of the month, pushed also by the better demand in terms of volumes of the domestic steel mills. Also the prices of the monthly contracts, settled with the European suppliers, rose around 35€, but the quantities offered have been lower than the mills expectations. At the end of the month the mills inventories remain at lower level.
Alocci says that May started with rumours from suppliers about new strong price increases for the metallic raw materials, supported by the Turkish prices, the lack of scrap at the yards and at the ports involved in the export to Turkey and a general better demand of the European end-users. Also the increased prices of the steel products are supporting this situation, but it seems not possible that the increases on the raw materials can be higher compared to ones of the steel products.
