While demand for hot rolled coil (HRC) in Europe has remained at medium levels during the past week, HRC supply in the region has declined due to Ilva's decision to stop its HRC production on Thursday, February 2. Ilva had decided to revamp its steel plants to reduce their negative impact on the environment. European buyers' import activity from China, Russian, Ukraine, Brazil, Iran and Serbia has been limited for a long time due to antidumping investigations. With domestic HRC supply declining in the past week, European buyers are expected to accelerate their purchases from Turkey and India. Flat steel prices in the region are expected to move up further against the backdrop of the lower supply and also due to the limited number of foreign suppliers. Market sources state that global prices of both HRC and raw materials are softening and so the expected rise in flat steel quotations in Europe will be modest.
On the other hand, ArcelorMittal has raised its HRC prices for northern Europe to €600/mt ($642/mt) ex-works for the second half of 2017. However, sources state that this price level has failed to gain acceptance in the market.
Accordingly, prices in the local European flat steel market have remained unchanged over the past week, with hot rolled coil (HRC) prices at €520-570/mt ($557-610/mt), cold rolled coil (CRC) prices at €650-670/mt ($696-717/mt) and hot dip galvanized product offers at €640-720/mt ($685-717/mt), all ex-works. Additionally, Turkish and Indian HRC offers to the region are at $500-510/mt FOB and $510-515/mt FOB, respectively.
€1 = $1.07