Business activity in Spain’s hot rolled coil (HRC) import market has remained slow this week amid the reductions in steel production due to soaring electricity prices, while the sentiments of most foreign HRC suppliers have remained bullish. Thus, deals have remained occasional as “service centers are buying only small batches for immediate consumption,” as one market insider said.
Accordingly, this week most HRC suppliers have been in no hurry to give discounts to Spanish importers. As a result, after selling around 20,000 mt of HRC at €1,220/mt CFR Spain, Japanese suppliers have increased their HRC offers to €1,230/mt CFR by the end of the week. Suppliers from India, however, have preferred to keep their prices for Spanish customers at around €1,260-1,275/mt CFR, and even several deals for small quantities have been reported at around €1,220/mt CFR this week. Meanwhile, HRC offers from Taiwan have been voiced at €1,240/mt CFR Spain, up by €15/mt over the past week. Besides, HRC suppliers from China have increased their offers to Spanish customers to €1,200-1,210/mt CFR duty paid, compared to €1,040-1,050/mt CFR duty paid last week.
In addition, some HRC bookings have been heard from Turkey as well. “The official offer for ex-Turkey HRC is at around $1,420/mt CFR (€1,284/mt CFR) duty paid (Habas duty 4.7%, Colakoglu 7.3%) but we have heard punctual bookings at $1,300/mt CFR (€1,176/mt CFR) duty paid in Italy, which is actually much lower,” a Spain-based trader told SteelOrbis.
In the meantime, while most main HRC suppliers have been trying to go higher, several HRC import offers have been heard at lower levels in Spain this week. In particular, ex-South Korea offers have decreased to €1,250/mt CFR Spain from €1,280/mt CFR at the end of last week, while ex-Vietnam offers have dropped by around $75/mt to €1,200/mt CFR over the past week, though no deals have been reported so far.
“In general, we see that steel consumption is going down in the EU markets due to very high prices. Most buyers are still questioning the sustainability of the current prices in the long run and prefer not to fill their stocks with expensive materials. Also, European flats producers, including those in Spain, have been facing high energy costs and disruptions to raw material supplies from Russia and Ukraine,” a market insider stated.