Although European mills have mostly retuned from the summer holidays, business activity in the European HRC market has remained weak, with local mills failing to increase their offers since most buyers keep postponing new bookings due to still slow demand and uncertainty over the direction of prices.
More specifically, workable prices for HRC are evaluated at €630-660/mt ex-works, versus €630-665/mt ex-works last week, with the lower end of the range corresponding to tradable HRC prices in Italy at €630-650/mt ex-works, while the higher end corresponds to offers in the north, which have settled at €640-660/mt ex-works, down by €5-10/mt week on week.
According to sources, although steel mills still aim to increase their offers to €680-700/mt ex-works, several HRC transactions have been reported in Germany at around €650-660/mt ex-works, while HRC offers from Italy to Germany have been heard at around €680/mt delivered. “Both in the north and in the south mills still aim to increase prices, but for now demand cannot support any big hikes, while there is not so much restocking in the market as service centres are trying to reduce their actual stocks,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
In the import segment, trade has continued to be sluggish this week as well, due to safeguard-related risks and consequently inconvenient lead times. However, most import offers for Asian origin mainly, including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and India have been reported at higher levels, standing at €630-650/mt CFR southern Europe, depending on the supplier, versus €620-630/mt CFR last week. “One week ago, it was still possible to hear ex-Japan and ex-Taiwan offers at €615/mt CFR southern Europe, but now everybody has decided to go higher, with price ideas already voiced at €650/mt CFR,” a Spanish trader told SteelOrbis.
“Tokyo Steel has closed orders at €620-625/mt CFR for October shipment and now it is staying out of the market, while Nippon Steel is not offering officially yet and people expect them with new offers at €630-650/mt CFR Spain,” another trader said.