In the European flat steel market, offers are being adjusted upwards frequently, up to twice a week. The latest offers for flat products from European producers stand at €420-430/mt for hot rolled coil (HRC), at €510-530/mt for cold rolled coil (CRC), and at €515-540/mt for hot dip galvanized (HDG), all ex-works. These prices are €130/mt higher than those seen in late February-early March.
This situation is causing problems for distributors and service centers, as they are not able to pass on these price increases as quickly to their customers and so they may eventually end up with their sales prices being lower than the cost of buying in new stocks.
In the meantime, downstream demand is not great and buyers are purchasing only to meet short-term needs.
Market players are worried by the current situation of high prices and low demand, since there are some signals indicating an increase in Chinese production.