The increasing trend of hot rolled coil (HRC) prices in the European market, which started early in November, may start to slow down. Currently, HRC prices are at €450/mt ex-works on average in the Italian market, i.e., virtually unchanged compared to one week ago. Meanwhile, in northern European countries, prices have increased by €5-10/mt to €465/mt ex-works on average.
The difference between the two areas is also in terms of activities. While in northern Europe trading activities have been improving, in the Italian market buyers are not willing to place big orders and mostly tend to delay any purchases until the very last moment. According to sources, European producers are still fairly determined to try to push their prices up further. However, they are not helped by the fact that downstream demand is still very hesitant, especially in southern Europe. They are still supported by production cuts and high import offers, but the support coming from raw material prices (scrap in Turkey and iron ore in China) is failing. For these reasons, some sources said they would not be surprised to witness an interruption of the upward trend of HRC prices in the European market, if not some slight corrections.
On the import side, there have been small sales of HRC to Italy at €465/mt CFR, while Severstal has sold HRC to western Europe at $490/mt FOB.