Despite some growth in buying on the eve of winter vacation and Xmas holidays amply supported by depreciating Euro v/s USD of 2% to 3% over a month, the tidings are still discouraging with poor demand.
Southern Europe is gathering bulk of the flak with poor consumption and cautious customers adhering to need based procurement. Booking at the current market levels is a misnomer lacking assurance of quick liquidation.
Booking interest is only for material ready in stock at prices much below market level. The fervor of year end stocking is absent with slow off take down the supply chain.
Spanish market is nearly dead with very little imports and most of the transactions taking place with domestic mills. The situation in Portugal is even worse with import onslaught from North African Mills and suppliers.
Italian market is marginally better with end users squeezed between higher raw material prices and cheap imports .The mirth is further deepened with political uncertainty.