Demand in the European flat steel market is still quiet due to the summer season and planned maintenance works. Meanwhile, local producers and traders expect demand to increase in September but they also predict that the European flat steel market will continue to face import competition.
Over the past two weeks, flat steel offers in the local European market have remained unchanged. Accordingly, hot rolled coil prices are still at €350-370/mt ($392-414/mt), cold rolled coil (CRC) offers are at €430-465/mt ($482-512/mt), hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil offers in northern Europe stand at €460-480/mt ($515-538/mt), while HDG offers in southern Europe are in the range of €410-450/mt ($459-504/mt), all ex-works. Meanwhile, import HRC and CRC offers to Europe from sources such as China, India, the CIS, Turkey and Iran have also remained unchanged at €320-350/mt ($358-392/mt) CIF and €390-425/mt ($437-476/mt) CIF, respectively.
€1 = $1.12