There is little happening in the Italian scrap market this week as the August hiatus in 2018 has started earlier than predicted, Kallanish finds.

The market has been extremely quiet with disruption to logistics as mills are either not receiving scrap or are delaying receipt.  While most players are implementing the usual two-to-three weeks summer stoppages, demand from mills has been heavily reduced both last and this week with prices that are remaining mostly stable month-on-month.

Merchants say that July sales volumes have been low and since the market is so quiet some merchants begun their holidays this week instead of the second week of August. This happens even though during the first days of August deliveries are still ongoing.

The general strategy of mills so far has been to maintain stability but merchants who spoke to Kallanish from the beach say that they will ask a €10/tonne ($11.6/t) increase from September The larger merchants will ask a €15/t increase, Kallanish hears.

While E1 scrap is at €280/t delivered, E3 is sold for €10/t less. E8 new arisings grade remains stable m-o-m at €305-310/t delivered but higher qualities are at €320/t delivered. Shredded scrap E40 is also stable at €305/t delivered, sources suggest.