Trading activity has remained muted in the southern European HRC import market considering the still weak demand of end-consumers and risks of further spot price drops. New import HRC offers from Asian suppliers have kept decreasing, while other suppliers have mostly maintained their prices over the past week.
Accordingly, import offers have been reported at €820-860/mt CFR, down by €10/mt week on week, with the lower end of the range corresponding to import offers in the Italian market and with the higher end of the range in Spain. More specifically, offers from Asian suppliers, including Japan, Taiwan and South Korea have decreased to €830-840/mt CFR Italy, with around 20,000 mt booked through traders at €820-830/mt CFR this week. Meanwhile, ex-Asian HRC offers have been voiced at €840-860/mt CFR Spain, down by €10-20/mt over the past week. “Most buyers have been delaying restocking and deals have remained occasional to restock some specifications. We only heard some small tonnages for ex-Asian coils booked in Spain at €840/mt CFR, but we could not obtain final confirmation,” a Spanish trader told SteelOrbis.
Meanwhile, offers from Turkey have been reported at the same levels as last week, at around €830/mt CFR Italy, duty paid, and at around €870-880/mt CFR Spain. No deals have been heard so far.
At the same time, most Indian mills, who have suspended negotiations due to the new export duties, have settled their offers for boron-added HRC at €780-800/mt CFR southern Europe, compared to €800/mt CFR last week. “In Spain, no one wishes to buy HRC with boron as it is a very hard material,” a market insider told.
In addition, local HRC prices in southern Europe have settled at around at €890-920/mt ex-works, compared to €920-950/mt ex-works last week, “with marginal offers for big tonnages €850/mt ex-works,” according to a market insider. Besides, considering the still muted trading activity, mills are considering cutting their outputs, and a few of them may have already done so, sources commented.