Demand in the European flat steel market has decreased rapidly during the past two weeks and is now weak. With the dollar strengthening to 1.14 against the euro last week, European steel producers have decreased their domestic prices in order to not lose their share in competition with declining import offers amid weakening demand. The European flat steel market is expected to continue to see slack demand during the summer period.
Over the past two weeks, hot rolled coil (HRC) offers in the local European market have decreased by €20-25/mt ($22-28/mt) to €370-415/mt ($414-465/mt), cold rolled coil (CRC) offers have declined by €5/mt ($6/mt) to €455-485/mt ($510-543/mt) and hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil offers in northern and southern Europe have decreased by €10/mt ($11/mt) to €470-490/mt ($526-549/mt) and €430-450/mt ($482-504/mt) respectively, all ex-works. Meanwhile, import HRC offers to Europe from sources such as China, India, the CIS, Turkey and Iran have declined by €10/mt ($11/mt) over the past two weeks and are currently at €365-386/mt ($409-431/mt) CIF, while CRC offers from the same sources to Europe have decreased by €5/mt ($6/mt) over the same period to the range of €425-455/mt ($476-510/mt) CIF.
€1 = $1.12