The situation for European HRC suppliers has not changed much over the past week, with HRC domestic prices from mills being maintained at mainly “notional” levels, while real workable prices are still at lower levels. However, in the import segment more bullish sentiments have been mounting among suppliers, and especially those from Asia who have returned from the Lunar New Year holiday.
Sources said that domestic prices in the EU HRC market have remained at €740-780/mt ex-works, with workable prices in Italy and Spain still standing at €740-750/mt ex-works, thought the official HRC offers from southern European mills have increased to €770-780/mt ex-works, versus €760-780/mt ex-works last week. In northern Europe, prices from mills have been heard at €760-780/mt ex-works, the same as last week, while transaction prices have remained at €750-760/mt ex-works.
Meanwhile, the mood has started to change in the EU HRC market this week, as more and more buyers have started to question the likelihood of a further uptrend given no visible signs of a rebound in end-user demand, coupled with expected supply growth amid numerous restarts of steelmaking facilities idled last year. However, as for European steel producers, most of them have remained confident in a further positive trend and they are unwilling to provide any discounts for second quarter materials given their strong order books.
In the meantime, most foreign suppliers have kept trying to increase their offers for European buyers this week. In particular, import HRC prices in southern Europe have increased by around €10/mt week on week to €720-745/mt CFR, depending on the supplier. In particular, suppliers from Japan have increased their HRC offers to €730/mt CFR southern Europe, versus €710-715/mt CFR last week, while ex-Taiwan HRC offers have been voiced at €720/mt CFR, up by €10/mt over the past week. Besides, after several deals were reported for ex-India HRC at $770-780/mt (€710-715/mt) CFR, new offers for Indian suppliers have increased to $800-820/mt CFR, which translates to around €730-745/mt CFR.
At the same time, following some purchases for ex-Egypt HRC last week, more deals for ex-Egypt materials have been reported in Italy and Spain this week, though at last week’s level of €725/mt CFR, according to sources.