Steelmakers in the European flat steel market have been unable to implement the price hikes they had targeted last month, due to lower import offers to the region. Although European mills were seeking to increase their flat steel prices by €30-40/mt ($41-55/mt) last month, they only managed to achieve an increase of €5/mt ($7/mt), particularly due to low-priced ex-India flat steel offers to Europe. Meanwhile, flat steel prices in the UK have softened by £10/mt ($16/mt) over the past month.
Activity has slowed down due to the approach of the Christmas and New Year holidays, while the volumes being purchased at the new price levels have remained low. In the meantime, European steel mills, which are anticipating a recovery in end-user demand in 2014, believe that improvement will start to be observed in late January.
Hot rolled coil (HRC) prices in southern and central Europe are at €430-450/mt ($589-616/mt) ex-works, while cold rolled coil prices in these regions stand at €500-535/mt ($685-733/mt) ex-works and hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil prices are at €490-535/mt ($671-733/mt) ex-works. In the meantime, HRC offers in the UK can be found at £410-420/mt ($672-689/mt) ex-works.
€1 = $1.37
£1 = $1.64
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