Local steel hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in Northern Europe edged up slightly as mills tried to achieve higher levels, while prices in Italy declined on the latest deals despite limited supply in the market, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday October 7.
In Northern Europe, sources said demand was still subdued, so price increases were not accepted as quickly as mills expected.
A buyer source reported an indication of workable prices in the Benelux area at €730 ($821) per tonne ex-works, saying this level was still possible to achieve. The same source said offers from mills in the area were at €740-750 per tonne ex-works.
A second buyer reported an offer at €760 per tonne ex-works. No other price points were received during the day.
Due to one source accounting for more than 50% of the input on Wednesday, prices collected in the previous day were copied over to the latest index calculation, in line with Fastmarkets methodology.
On Tuesday, a seller source reported deals within the range of €740-760 per tonne ex-works, and a buyer reported an indication of tradable level at €740 per tonne ex-works.
Thus, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe was calculated at €746.88 per tonne on Wednesday, up by €1.88 per tonne from €745 per tonne on Tuesday.
The index was stable week on week but up by €4.38 per tonne month on month.
In Italy, a producer in the market said that the latest prices confirmed in transactions were within €750-760 per tonne delivered for November-December delivery, which nets back to around €730-745 per tonne ex-works after deducting delivery costs of €15-20 per tonne.
The same source said that they were not seeing higher levels achieved in the market yet, “even if the offers are definitely higher.” The producer added that it was offering minor December allocation at €750 per tonne ex-works, with bids €10-20 per tonne below this level.
However, this fell outside the Fastmarkets methodology delivery window of up to six weeks, so the December prices were not considered in Wednesday’s index calculation.
Despite the statement from the producer about limited increases achieved in the market, a buyer indicated workable HRC prices in Italy within the range of €740-750 per tonne ex-works, in line with previous transactions heard in the market on Monday October 5.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €741.25 per tonne on October 7, down by €3.75 per tonne from €745 per tonne on October 6.
The index was down by €2.50 per tonne week on week but up by €13.75 per tonne month on month.
