During the past week, flat steel prices in the local Italian market have increased again, by a slight margin, with hot rolled coil (HRC) base prices increasing by €5/mt on the lower end to €525-540/mt ($625-643/mt), cold rolled coil (CRC) prices rising by €10/mt to €610-630/mt ($726-750/mt) and hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil base prices increasing by €5/mt to €630-650/mt ($750-774/mt), all ex-works.
As reported previously, Italian flat steel producers have healthy order books and lead times are quite long."For HRC, lead times extend to 45 days, while none of the European producers can deliver HDG before December," a market source told SteelOrbis. Meanwhile, major European producers are asking for €560/mt ($666/mt) ex-works for HRC, while buyers are not yet willing to buy at such a high price level. At the moment, in northern Europe, transaction prices are €15-20/mt lower for HRC.
€1 = $1.19