As anticipated, this week European producers have been forced to go lower in their new HRC offers given the extremely slow buying activity in the region as most customers have been refraining from new purchases amid high levels of stocks, while prices for import materials have been on the wane.
Offers from European HRC producers have decreased significantly this week, moving to €730-760/mt ex-works levels, against €745-780/mt ex-works last week. More specifically, in northern Europe HRC offers from mills have been heard at €740-760/mt ex-works, versus €745-780/mt ex-works last week, while workable prices have settled at €740-750/mt ex-works with several deals for small tonnages reportedly at the abovementioned levels at the beginning of this week. However, by Thursday, February 15, the tradable price has declined to €730/mt ex-works, according to sources.
Italian mills have reduced local HRC prices for April delivery to €730-740/mt ex-works or around €750-760/mt delivered, down by around €15-25/mt week on week. However, market insiders said tradable prices have already reached €730/mt ex-works.
At the same time, although trade activity has been rather slow in Asia amid the Chinese New Year celebrations, market insiders have reported new deals for ex-Vietnam and ex-Japan HRC signed in Spain at €630-635/mt CFR. Most ex-Asia HRC offers, however, have been estimated at €640-650/mt CFR southern Europe, down by €10/mt week on week, including new offers from India at $695/mt CFR, translating to around €647-650/mt CFR. Besides, offers for ex-Egypt HRC have been estimated €650/mt CFR Italy, while last week buyers from Spain said ex-Egypt HRC was available at €705/mt CFR through traders. Meanwhile, according to Spain-based traders, most customers are in wait-and-see mode, while the last offers for Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan origin HRC through traders, for 90-day deferred payment, have settled at €660/mt CFR, down by €20/mt week on week.
