While business activity in the European hot-rolled coil (HRC) market has been quiet due to the holiday period, some sources are concerned by the rather aggressive offers reported on the import side. Indian mills, struggling to sell in their local market and facing low bids from Asian markets, have come to the Mediterranean region with low offers.
As the Italian HRC market as well as the European market in general are still muted due to the holiday period that will end on January 9, prices have been trending sideways at €810-840/mt in Italy and at €900-920/mt in northern Europe, both ex-works. Meanwhile, trading sources have reported that Indian mills seem eager to sell, with offers at around €760-780/mt CFR Italy for shipment in late February. These offers are said to be lower compared to other import offers which are all above €800/mt CFR. “India will create a lot of problems here and especially for HRC sales to Europe in 2022. We need to sell under the quota, but Indian mills sell and ship and the material is waiting at ports,” a Turkish mill said.
At the same time, SteelOrbis has learned of ex-India offers at €860/mt for cold rolled coils (CRC) and €930/mt for hot dip galvanized (HDG), all CFR Italy, for shipment by the end of February. Taiwan has been offering HDG at €1,040/mt CFR Italy for March shipment.
With the new quota period starting on January 1, 238,350 mt of Turkish HRC is waiting for customs clearance, with the initial quota amounting to 323,205 mt for Turkey, while Russia shipped only 161,691 mt of HRC out of its 407,786 mt import quota. For India, its HRC import quota stands at 166,027 mt, and 56,832 mt of Indian HRC is already waiting at EU ports.