Demand in the European flat steel market has started to recover over the past two weeks, but it is steel at weak levels. Although market players state that demand is increasing rapidly, import flat steel offers to the region are exerting pressure on prices. So, European producers are expected to decrease their prices slightly in the coming days, despite higher demand.
Over the past two weeks, flat steel offers in the local European market have remained unchanged. Accordingly, hot rolled coil prices are still at €350-370/mt ($396-418/mt), cold rolled coil (CRC) offers are at €430-465/mt ($486-525/mt), and hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil offers in northern Europe stand at €460-480/mt ($520-542/mt), while HDG offers in southern Europe are in the range of €410-450/mt ($463-509/mt), all ex-works.
Meanwhile, import HRC offers to Europe from sources such as China, India, the CIS, Turkey and Iran have decreased by €15/mt over the past two weeks to €305-335/mt ($345-379/mt) CIF. Besides, CRC offers to the region have decreased by €10/mt on the low end and declined by €25/mt on the high end to €380-400/mt ($429-459/mt) CIF.
€1 = $1.13