Although sentiment has improved in the past week in the EU hot rolled coil (HRC) market, the range of domestic offer prices has remained mainly unchanged, with only a slight increase seen in southern Europe. At the same time, business activity in the import segment has remained muted, though most offers have been reported at lower levels.
Specifically, achievable HRC spot prices are at €780-900/mt ex-works, with the lower levels recorded in Italy and the higher levels in northern Europe. According to sources, Italian mills have rolled over their prices, offering at €780-800/mt ex-works. Although some market insiders are still evaluating the workable level at around €760/t ex-works, the majority are convinced that it is impossible to buy HRC from Italian mills at below €780/mt ex-works. At the same time, a further increase is rather doubtful considering that the difference between local and import quotes has widened due to lower import offers. Meanwhile, higher offers at €880-900/mt ex-works have been voiced in northern Europe, the same as last week, though the tradable level has remained at €860/mt ex-works, with a few transactions reported at the abovementioned level.
As reported previously, the sentiment has changed in the past two weeks thanks to the expectations of restocking activities by distributors, though trading activities have remained limited so far. Besides, a few European steel producers have decided to pause their production for maintenance reasons given the traditional lull during the summer holidays coupled with the low demand in the past few months.
Meanwhile, import HRC prices have tumbled in the southern European market. However, trading activity has remained low, with buyers still signing only occasional bookings. In particular, offers to southern Europe have settled at €700-730/mt CFR, down by €10-30/mt over the past week, depending on the origin. The lower end of the range corresponds to ex-India offers for boron-added coils at €700/mt CFR, compared to €710-730/mt CFR last week. According to sources, some transactions have been reported at the abovementioned level in Italy over the past two weeks, while currently most customers’ bids have settled at levels of $700/mt CFR (or around €690/mt CFR) and below.
Offers from Japanese suppliers have been mainly voiced at €715-730/mt CFR southern Europe, compared to €730-740/mt CFR last week, though, according to sources, some Japanese suppliers have been ready sell at as low as €680-690/mt CFR. In particular, ex-Japan materials have been offered at €715-720/mt CFR Italy, while customers in Spain have reported ex-Japan offers at around €725-730/mt CFR. Suppliers from South Korea and Egypt have set their offers at around €700/mt CFR Italy, down by €30/mt week on week. At the same time, this week some market insiders have reported several offers for ex-Asia coils at below €700/mt CFR. Besides, talk about a deal for ex-Taiwan HRC signed at €680/mt CFR has been circulating in the market, though this information was not confirmed by the time of publication.