Trade in the European domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) market has remained slow this week, affected by the ongoing weakness of demand as neither the construction sector nor the automotive sector are showing signs of improvement and, although most mills have kept their official offers stable at high levels and keep targeting more price hikes for the first quarter of 2025, tradable prices do not exceed €570/mt ex-works, both in Italy and northern Europe. At the same time, interest in HRC imports has improved to some extent in Europe, with a several deals reported to have been done in Italy, Spain and Germany this week.
Accordingly, the general range in the EU HRC market has settled at €560-620/mt ex-works, the same as last week. More specifically, while offers from Italian mills have been voiced at €590/mt ex-works for January delivery, the tradable levels estimated by buyers have been reported at €560-570/mt ex-works, the same as last week.
In northern Europe, offers from mills have settled at €600-620/mt ex-works, for January-February delivery, and even €20/mt higher for delivery in March. “We heard January delivery coils are mainly sold out,” a market insider said. However, despite the mills’ optimism in terms of prices, tradable prices for HRC in the north are still voiced at €560-570/mt ex-works.
“The outlook has been changing in Europe. While a few weeks ago market insiders were expecting a price rebound in the first quarter of 2025, now most anticipate more restocking not earlier than March and hopefully more inquiries in April and May, when the shortage of imports will become noticeable in the market,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
At the same time, although safeguard quotas and an antidumping investigation are still keeping import volumes down, this week more deals have been reported in the region, in particular for origins which are not facing the antidumping probe. According to sources, a deal for around 30,000 mt in total of ex-Indonesia HRC has been signed at around €560/mt CFR southern Europe. Besides, another deal for ex-Malaysia HRC has been reported at $585/mt FOB, or around €560-570/mt CFR Germany. At the same time, most offers for ex-Asia HRC have been voiced at €560-590/mt CFR, the same as last week, with the lower end of the range corresponding to offers for ex-India HRC, while offers from Taiwan and South Korea have been reported at around €580-590/mt CFR.
Furthermore, talk about a deal for 20,000 mt of ex-Turkey HRC signed at around $570/mt CFR, or €540/mt CFR duty paid, has been circulating in the market. However, according to sources, official offers from Turkish suppliers are still voiced at €590-600/mt CFR, including duty.