Over the past week, demand has remained weak in the European flat steel market as buyers have continued to postpone their purchases, preferring to sit back and monitor the markets in expectation of further declines in global flat steel prices. Apart from weak demand, the downtrend in global iron ore and coking coal prices and the low-priced import flat steel offers to the EU have put pressure on flat steel prices in the region, causing them to soften.
Domestic flat rolled steel prices in Europe have moved down by €10/mt week on week, with hot rolled coil (HRC), cold rolled coil (CRC) and hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil prices falling to €480-530/mt ($538-594/mt), €590-640/mt ($661-717/mt) ex-works and €620-670/mt ($694-750/mt) ex-works, respectively.
On the other hand, ex-CIS HRC offers to Europe are currently at $440-460/mt FOB, while Turkish and Indian HRC offers to the same destination stand at $470-480/mt FOB and $440-450/mt FOB, respectively.
€1 = $1.12