Steel price remained downhill in Italy and Spain prices owing to no letup in economic situation. Sluggish demand and consumption remained unaltered.

HRC is sold in Italy at around Euro 400 to 410 per tonne delivered while in Spain it was shade better level around Euro 430 to 440 per tonne. Grapevine has it that the beleaguered mill Ilva in Italy has sold a cargo at Euro 430 per tonne delivered Spain.

Even the otherwise better priced Northern Europe market the price levels are sinking with HRC price touching Euro 440 per tonne and lower.

CRC price is barely above Euro 500 per tonne mark, but Russian Mills are already offering Euro 470 Fob St Petersburg that is Euro 490 per tonne cfrfo Antwerp. CRC in South Europe is offered and booked at around 480 Euro/mt cfrfo. HDG in South Europe is offered at prices even lower than CRC for thickness 1 mm and Z100.

De-bars are offered and booked at Euro 450 per tonne Fob Stowed for destination North Africa. Sections from Spain are offered at Euro 495 - 500 per tonne Fob St or Euro 520 cfrfo North Africa.

HRP price is going in direction of Euro 440 - 430 per tonne, as recent bookings have been done at Euro 450 per tonne delivered Italy. German price are only Euro 10 per tonne more.

It is widely anticipated that downtrend will reverse after 2-3 weeks before the European holidays when re-stocking will pick up on apprehension of price hike in Q4. However such assumptions are mere conjectures unsupported by any economic or market logic.