European HRC prices stable in quiet market; sentiment cautiously positive
Still, sentiment remained cautiously positive and European mills were aiming for higher prices, Fastmarkets heard.
An uptrend in the imported coil market and improved restocking supported European steelmakers’ attempts to raise prices.
“The cheapest import prices are gone and those suppliers who can offer discounts have huge safeguard quota risks and quite distant lead times,” a trading source in the Netherlands said. “Apparent demand is still quite slow but customers have low stocks.”
Integrated mills in Northern Europe have stopped granting lower prices for June-delivery coil, several sources told Fastmarkets.
“We’ve booked coil at €630 ($674) per tonne ex-works but, when we tried to increase volumes for the same price, the mill rejected the bid,” a buyer in Northern Europe said.
Offer prices for June delivery HRC from integrated mills in Northern Europe were reported in the range of €640-670 per tonne ex-works, with lead times reported at four to five weeks.
A leading European steelmaker raised its offers to €670 per tonne ex-works earlier this week.
Buyers’ estimates of tradeable values were heard within €630-640 per tonne ex-works, with deals reported within this range earlier in the weak.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €632.00 ($676) per tonne on May 1, unchanged day on day.
https://dashboard.fastmarkets.com/p/MB-STE-0028
The index was up by €6.58 per tonne week on week but down by €31.75 per tonne month on month.
In Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €627.25 per tonne on Wednesday, also unchanged day on day.
https://dashboard.fastmarkets.com/p/MB-STE-0892
The index was up by €6.62 per tonne week on week but down by €17.75 per tonne month on month.
The Italian market was quiet on Wednesday due to a public holiday.
Offers for HRC with a lead time of four-to-five weeks from a local supplier were at €660-670 per tonne delivered (€650-660 per tonne ex-works), up from €640-650 per tonne delivered (€630-640 per tonne ex-works) in early April.
But buyers estimated tradeable values at no higher than €630-640 per tonne delivered (€620-630 per tonne ex-works).
At the same time, some sources suggested that local suppliers had that chance to increase prices incrementally given uncompetitive imports and buyers’ need to restock.
“End-user demand remains sluggish so major price rises are unlikely to be accepted. But small steps — [up by] €10-15-20 per tonne – are quite possible since there are no import alternatives,” a buyer source said.
Import offers for HRC have risen by €10-20 per tonne in the past two weeks, making overseas coil purchases less attractive for European buyers, especially taking into consideration long lead times. Asian mills were offering material for June-July shipment, which means arrival in August.
Prices for HRC from Vietnam, South Korea and India for June-July shipment were consolidating around €600-620 per tonne CFR.
From Turkey, June-shipment coil was offered at $660 per tonne CFR to Antwerp, without anti-dumping duty.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
EU reviews duties on Organic Coated Steel from China
The EU has initiated two separate expiry reviews of the anti-subsidy and the anti-dumping measures on imports of organic coated steel (OCS) from China, based on the request from European Steel Association EUROFER, according to Official Journal of the European Union, monitored by Kallanish.
The investigation is expected to last 12 months, and will cover the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023.
The products under review are OCS including flat-rolled products of non-alloy and alloy steel (not including stainless) which are painted, varnished or coated with plastics on at least one side. They currently fall under CN codes ex 7210 70 80, ex 7212 40 80, ex 7225 99 00, and ex 7226 99 70 (TARIC codes 7210708011, 7210708091, 7212408001, 7212408021, 7212408091, 7225990011, 7225990091, 7226997011 and 7226997091).
The expiry of measures would likely result in continuation of dumping and recurrence of injury to the EU industry, , according to the two separate notices. This is due to the existence of substantial unused capacity in China, a slowdown in domestic demand, the attractiveness of the EU market, and trade restrictive measures introduced by other jurisdictions.
Elina Virchenko UAE
Sülzle acquires German rebar distributor
Sülzle Stahlpartner, one of Germany’s large rebar distribution and bending groups, has expanded its regional range with the acquisition of P. T. Post Eisenhandel, based in Langenfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia
Founded in 1970 by Peter Thomas Post as a one-man business, the company was the largest family-owned rebar distributor between Cologne and Düsseldorf, Kallanish understands. Until the takeover, Peter Paul Post was the sole owner, partner and managing director in the second generation.
According to Sülzle, P.T. Post operates with state-of-the-art production facilities and innovative high-bay warehouses. It has an extensive range of rebar in commercial lengths, fixed lengths and prefabrication, in a warehouse area of 23,000 square metres in nine halls. The enterprise has 60 employees and 16 trucks. It serves the regional construction industry and building materials distributors with a construction steel centre.
Sülzle group has more than 1,000 employees, and operates 16 rebar sites in Germany.
Christian Koehl, Germany
Scrap, steel trade becoming more regionalised: Irepas conference
Leader of various Irepas committees envision more regionalisation, and less globalisation, of scrap flows, with European markets currently underperforming, Kallanish hears while attending the organisation’s spring conference in Berlin.
Evaluating the regions separately, producers committee chairman Murat Cebecioglu from İçdaş Çelik finds that market conditions are more optimistic in the GCC, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait given the new big infrastructure projects that are expected to direct producers to their domestic markets. Egyptian market conditions are getting better as the currency issue has mostly been solved and inflation is expected to drop, although the Suez Canal crisis continues to cause trouble.
Cebecioğlu says inflation is under control in Italy, there is Turkish and Italian competition in Greece and demand is still weak in Spain and Portugal. Housing in general is an issue in the EU.
“High interest rates and inflation are causing problems in many regions in terms of demand. I am afraid China’s exports will reach 2015 levels this year although the number of export markets is limited this time due to increased protectionism,” observes Cebecioğlu. He expects European safeguard measures to continue for another two years as already 14 countries applied for the extension of the quotas.
Responding to a question regarding the increase in Turkish steel production in the first quarter of 2024, Cebecioğlu states that exports to the EU contributed to the improved sales this year.
Raw material suppliers committee chairman Jens Björkman from Stena Metal says scrap generation in the EU is down by 15-50% depending on the region due to slow economic conditions although the market is hopeful for improvement after the start of expected interest rate cuts.
“Scrap flow will change significantly in the next 10 years and we will see more regionalisation and less transportation to far distances. Steel producers have already started looking for alternatives such as HBI, DRI and pig iron,” observes Björkman. He expects European scrap exports to Turkey, which has a significant demand for scrap, to drop with he arrival of the carbon border adjustment mechanism.
Björkman noted that the market feels fairly comfortable at scrap prices at $380-400/t and the generation might improve in the US as the US economy is doing well. He expects higher demand to continue in India.
“Global trade is becoming more local trade,” adds traders committee chairman F.D. Baysal from Seba International. Baysal notes that there are only limited markets left for Turkey with possibilities of Africa, Syria, Iraq, Eastern Europe and Yemen. He observes that the US market is showing healthy and steady growth while the EU market is the slowest among all. He also expects the quantity of Chinese exports, which increased 14% year-on-year in the first quarter, to continue growth this year.
“Nobody can compete with China at price,” contends Baysal.
Commenting on Turkey, Baysal says there is not much Turkish producers can do on their own and the Turkish government should get involved to lift current barriers.
Burcak Alpman, Turkey