Over the past two weeks, domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices in the Italian market and in northern Europe have continued to lose ground. Currently, in Italy, base HRC prices are at €410/mt ($451/mt) ex-works on average, falling by €10/mt compared to fifteen days ago. At the same time in northern Europe countries HRC prices went from €445-455/mt ($490-501/mt) to €425-435/mt ($468-479/mt) ex-works. In both cases delivery time amounts to a maximum of five weeks. According to sources, demand remains very low across the continent due to low consumption, and is further curbed by the expectation of other price reductions that could occur in the coming weeks. For the same reason, interest in the purchase of import material, which would not arrive before the beginning of next year, is scarce.
€1 = $1.1