While domestic prices for cold rolled (CRC) and hot dip galvanized coils (HDG) in Europe have increased slightly from mills over the past two weeks following some recovery seen in the hot rolled coil (HRC) segment, the tradable prices have remained relatively stable given that demand from end-users has continued at low levels, providing very limited support for European suppliers. At the same time, the CRC market in the EU has remained dominated by imports since the price gap between local and import materials has been narrowing significantly.
More specifically, in the domestic CRC market, European mills have been giving higher offers at €680-690/mt ex-works for March delivery in Italy, up by €10/mt on the higher end of the range over the past two weeks and at €670-680/mt ex-works for March delivery in the north, versus €670/mt ex-works two weeks ago. However, tradable prices have remained at around €660/mt ex-works both in Italy and in northern Europe, while some bids are still voiced at lower levels or at around €650/mt ex-works, according to sources.
In the import segment, most offers for CRC have remained stable or showed only a slight upward bias in some offers. In particular, offers for ex-India CRC have been voiced at €640-650/mt CFR, against €640/mt CFR two weeks ago, while offers for ex-Japan CRC have settled at around €640mt CFR. According to sources, even though the difference between local and import prices has been narrowing, EU customers have still been interested in import materials, as CRC quotas have not been used up as quickly as HRC quotas, meaning there is still room for CRC imports in the domestic market. Specifically, according to official data, 231,876 mt of the "other countries" quota for January-March remain available from the initial first quarter allocation of 330,695 mt, while India's initial CRC import allowance was 161,302 mt, with 150,944 mt still available under the quota as of this week’s data.
In the meantime, in the HDG segment, domestic offers from mills have settled at €670-710/mt CFR in the north and €690/mt ex-works in Italy, up by around €5-10/mt over the past two weeks. However, domestic workable prices in the region have remained stable at around €670/mt ex-works both in Italy and in the north.
Import HDG prices for ex-Asia Z120-140 materials have settled at around €720-730/mt CFR, up by €10/mt over the past two weeks.