The situation has not changed much in the EU hot rolled coil (HRC) market in the past week, where the range of domestic prices has remained substantially stable, and only several big producers have made attempts to go higher. At the same time, although it is still early to talk about a full-scale recovery, sentiment has improved as market insiders agree that HRC prices have reached the bottom and are going to increase. In the import segment, the interest in import coils has remained minimal, while most offers have remained unchanged in southern Europe.
According to sources, achievable spot prices are at €770-900/mt ex-works, with the lower levels being recorded in Italy and the higher levels in northern Europe. More specifically, Italian mills have settled their prices at €780-900/mt ex-works, though traders have been mainly offering at €770-780/mt ex-works, up by €20/mt on the lower end of the range week on week. Meanwhile, higher offers at 880-900€/mt ex-works have been voiced in northern Europe, though tradable levels have remained lower in a range of €850-860/mt ex-works. According to market sources, buying activity in the European coils market has remained generally limited with only small volumes being traded, though some optimism was brought to the market as restocking activities by distributors are awaited.
At the same time, sources have told SteelOrbis that an Italian producer has sold HRC to northern Germany at €850-870/mt delivered (with transport costs at around €80/mt).
Meanwhile, in the import segment, trade activity has remained generally weak, while most foreign suppliers have kept their HRC offers stable for southern European customers. In particular, offers to southern Europe have settled at €710-760/mt CFR, depending on the origin. The lower end of the range corresponds to ex-India offers for boron-added coils at €710-730/mt CFR, compared to €715-730/mt CFR last week. Although, according to market insiders, several deals for ex-India material have been reported at $710-720/mt CFR (€698-708/mt CFR) this week, this information was not confirmed by the time of publication. Apart from deals for ex-India materials, a deal for around 25,000-30,000 mt of ex-Egypt HRC has been reported at $730/mt CFR southern Europe (around €717-720/mt CFR) this week.
At the same time, offers from Asian suppliers, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam, have been voiced at €740-760/mt CFR, the same as last week, though, market sources reported that some lower offers from Japan have been voiced at €730-735/mt CFR Italy this week. Furthermore, suppliers from Turkey have increased their offers to €750-770/mt CFR southern Europe, including duty, compared to €750/mt CFR last week.
“Import quotes are mainly stable in Italy and Spain, but they are unattractive to buyers considering the current exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar coupled with lead times which will help domestic recovery,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
