During the last week of August, trade activity in the European HRC market has remained muted since, while European mills in the north have started to slowly return to work, mills in the south have not started to reopen after the summer holidays so far, expecting to come back from September 4. As for imports, although business has remained slack, more offers at higher levels have been heard in the southern European market.
More specifically, workable prices for HRC are evaluated at €630-665/mt ex-works, versus €630-650/mt ex-works last week. Such a slight increase reflects the higher offers in northern Europe, standing at €650-665/mt ex-works, up by €10-15/mt week on week. At the same time, the market has continued to actively discuss reports that mills are aiming to increase their HRC offers to €700/mt ex-works in the next round, for October-November deliveries. “ArcelorMittal is also sending the message that they are going to increase its HRC price to €700/mt, but it is not an official announcement so far,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
Meanwhile, according to sources, Italian mills are also bullish for September, and the price is expected to reach €680/mt ex-works. However, for now, tradable prices have remained at last week’s levels, at €630-650/mt ex-works.
At the same time, although import HRC trade is still in a lull in southern Europe due to safeguard-related risks and consequently inconvenient lead times around December, most foreign suppliers have increased their offers to the region amid the bullishness mounting among local European mills. In particular, import HRC prices have been voiced at €620-630/mt CFR, depending on the supplier, versus €600-610/mt CFR last week. More specifically, offers from Japan and Indonesia have been heard at €620-630/mt CFR, offers from Taiwan have settled at €625/mt CFR, while ex-India and ex-Turkey HRC has been offered at €630/mt CFR and slightly above.
Offers for import HRC in northern Europe have remained at €630-640/mt CFR Antwerp, the same as last week.