The European hot-rolled coil (HRC) market has remained largely stagnant this week, with trading activity seasonally subdued. Local HRC prices have increased across European market and import quotations have now started to follow the upward trend. However, the market has remained characterized by a wide gap between offers and bids.
Specifically, most local HRC prices from mills in northern Europe, for mainly October delivery, have been estimated at €580/mt ex-works, compared to €560-580/mt ex-works last week, while the tradable price level has settled at €550-560/mt ex-works levels, up by €10/mt week on week. “Mills continued to reject lower bids, while buyers resisted higher offers. Nevertheless, with order books in a comfortable position, domestic producers moved to lift their offer prices,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
“While mills are pushing for further price hikes, support from end-user demand is limited, and inventories at many buyers’ facilities remain at relatively high levels,” a representative of one mill said.
Meanwhile, in Italy, indicative offers from mills have been estimated at €560-570/mt ex-works, for September and October deliveries, up by €20/mt over the past week. However, according to sources, while some sellers have been still ready to sell at around €550/mt ex-works, customers have been still aiming €525-530/mt ex-works, the same as last week.
In the meantime, although most buyers’ price idea for import HRC has remained at €450-500/mt CFR, depending on the supplier, some foreign suppliers have increased their offers this week. In particular, offers for ex-Turkey HRC have increased to $610/mt CFR, including duty, which translates to around €530/mt CFR, with a few deals reportedly signed in northern Europe at above mentioned level this week. However, according to sources, some offers for ex-Turkey HRC in the south have been still estimated at lower levels or around €500-520/mt CFR, duty included, compared to €480-500/mt CFR last week.
Besides, offers for ex-India HRC have been voiced at $590/mt CFR, which translates to around €515/mt CFR, compared to €493-497/mt CFR last week.
Meanwhile, market sources reported talk of a deal for ex-Algeria HRC at €515/mt CFR Italy this week, although this had not been officially confirmed by the time of publication.
$1 = €0.87