Most Italian steel producers plan to stop production for summer maintenance in August, but some have changed their schedule this year and plan shorter stoppages due to demand recovering from the Covid-19-related lockdown in March-April, sources told Fastmarkets.
Long steel
Major steelmakers in Italy are expected to stop all operations during the second week of August for the usual summer maintenance.
Demand for long steel products in Italy was good in July with construction activity recovering from what sources called "the lockdown coma." Consequently, some long steelmakers plan shorter maintenance stoppages this year.
"We are at 80-90% of pre-pandemic levels," one consumer said.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for
steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Southern Europe was at ?,?425-435 ($502-513) per tonne on July 29, unmoved since July 8 when it moved up from ?,?420-435 per tonne.
Italian rebar producers managed to achieve higher prices in early July on improving demand from construction sector, sources said.
Generally, long steelmakers in Italy will stop for about two weeks this summer, according to one distributor.
A mill source in the country said there is a strong desire to run...