Hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have indicated a further slight decline in the EU domestic market in the past week. Demand has weakened due to the traditional summer lull, while competitive import offers have kept exerting some downward pressure on prices, especially in southern Europe. According to sources, the range of transaction prices has declined by €10/mt on average, to €1,040-1,150/mt ex-works. Achievable prices are mostly in the range of €1,040-1,060/mt in the Italian market and mostly at €1,120-1,150/mt in northern Europe, all ex-works. Buyers now have sufficient stocks for the coming months, while at the same time a lot of mills continue to offer their fourth quarter production or are sold out until the end of the year. Moreover, the disruptions caused to logistics by the flooding in Germany will be resolved only after several weeks. In this situation, domestic prices should not decrease much further, according to market sources. Additionally, HRC prices in the Italian market should trend sideways in the coming two to three weeks due to the summer holidays.
As regards Italy, domestic HRC prices have declined by €20/mt on the higher end of the range due to competitive import offers. According to sources, HRC offers from various sources are generally between €920/mt and €990/mt CFR Italy, while they were around €930-1,000/mt CFR last week. Higher offers have come from Egypt and Japan, while the lower offers are those from Turkey, Russia (AD duties included) and India (safeguard duty included, since India exhausted its quarterly quota at the beginning of July).