In the past week, demand has remained firm in the European flat steel market, with import flat steel offers moving up following the uptrend of domestic offers seen in the previous week. Italian steel producer Ilva has again started to give price offers, for May production. European producers have preferred to adopt a wait-and-see stance for the time being so as not to give higher offers compared to import quotations, while they also expect European domestic flat steel supply to improve when Ilva resumes production. However, due to higher global raw material and flat steel prices, European producers are foreseen to continue increasing their offers in the short term.
Over the past week, local European flat steel prices remained stable, with hot rolled coil (HRC) prices standing at €530-580/mt ($562-615/mt), cold rolled coil (CRC) prices at €640-690/mt ($678-731/mt) and hot dip galvanized product offers at €630-690/mt ($668-731/mt), all ex-works. HRC offers given to the EU from India have increased by $10/mt to $510-520/mt FOB, while Turkish HRC offers have moved up by $15/mt $525-530/mt FOB, both week on week.
Meanwhile, Ilva has started to quote prices again after a break of a few weeks. It is targeting €550-560/mt ($583-594/mt) for HRC, €650-660/mt ($689-700/mt) for CRC and €680/mt for ($721/mt) HDG, all for May production.
€1 = $1.06