Day: 1 September 2023

The market was silent due to the summer slow period, with market sources expecting poor consumption by the construction sector to continue to weigh on demand when the summer break ends in September.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €790-820 ($861-894) per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged week on week.

Similarly, the weekly price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Southern Europe, was also €790-820 per tonne on Wednesday, and also stable from a week earlier.

Weak construction consumption was also a concern in the hot-rolled coil feedstock market, with a strong September rebound in prices seen to be unlikely.

But HRC market participants said that there would be some need for restocking in September, which could put some upward pressure on the market.

Fastmarkets’ daily calculation of its steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was €650.21 per tonne on Wednesday, up by €7.50 per tonne compared with €642.71 per tonne a week earlier.

Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €650.00 ($708.30) per tonne on August 31, down by just €0.21 per tonne from the previous calculation of €650.21 per tonne on August 30.

The index was up by €6.25 per tonne week on week but down by €4.92 per tonne month on month.

In the week starting August 21, a major European steelmaker raised its offers to €700 per tonne ex-works for HRC with October lead times. In the current week, that offer price “became more generalized in Northern Europe,” a source in the market said.

Some other European mills were following the trend. Notably, one Central European producer announced offers of HRC for September-October delivery at €710 per tonne delivered.

Another mill in the same region was hoping to achieve €700 per tonne delivered for October-delivery coil.

German producers were not really active in the market, reporting delays in deliveries.

But another integrated mill in Northern Europe was reported to be selling October-delivery HRC at €650 per tonne ex-works, while for November-December it was hoping to achieve €680-700 per tonne ex-works.

Buyers’ estimates of tradeable prices in Northern Europe were still no higher than €640-650 per tonne ex-works. Insufficient end-user demand was the major obstacle to a price rebound, buyers said.

Fastmarkets’ calculation of its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was €635.00 per tonne on Thursday, down by €0.83 per tonne from €635.83 per tonne on August 30.

The Italy index was up by €1.67 per tonne week on week, but unchanged month on month.

The Italian market was still rather quiet, with buyers and mills expected to make a full return to the market in the week starting September 4.

Local producers were hoping to achieve €700 per tonne delivered (about €680-685 per tonne ex-works) in transactions for October-delivery HRC. But buyers did not believe such a large rise was possible, considering slow downstream sales and the difficulties that end-users would face to increase prices.

“Steel service centers are still selling cut-to-length HRC at no more than €740 per tonne delivered, so achieving €700 per tonne delivered for HRC would be a problem,” a trading source said.

Buyers’ ideas of tradeable values were still being reported at €630-640 per tonne ex-works, and they reported sales of September-delivery coil from one integrated mill in late August within that range.

Some trading sources suggested that €650-660 per tonne ex-works could be achieved for October-delivery coil amid a restocking drive. “[But the] price direction will become more clear [in the week starting September 4] when buyers gradually come back to the market,” a distributor said.

HRC import offers for October-November shipment to Europe were stable day on day on Thursday, within the range of €600-630 per tonne CFR to Italy from Asia and Turkey.