Notably, HRC offer prices from ArcelorMittal with lead times in February-March were heard at €630 ($661) per tonne ex-works or delivered in Northern Europe, according to sources.
This is up from the producer’s most recent offer for HRC heard at €600 per tonne ex-works in November-December.
Sources familiar with the matter told Fastmarkets that the mills had seen some pick-up in orders in recent weeks due to restocking, reaching levels of €580-590 per tonne ex-works or delivered in deal for January delivery coil.
Besides, the recent news about safeguards review, announced by the European Commission on Tuesday December 17, also sparked some cautious optimism among sellers.
“The appetite for import [HRC] has already been lower in recent months due to the anti-dumping probe against HRC from [Egypt, India, Japan and Vietnam] and the changes to safeguards made in July; it takes some time to clear up what’s in the pipeline, what’s sitting imports, but by the end of the first quarter [of 2025], the lack of imports will start to be visible [in Europe],” a buyer source said.
Another source suggested that the move was made due to some progress with long-term contracts negotiations with end users, notably in the automotive sector.
Notably, several industry sources reported some closures of half-year contracts for the first half of 2025 with a discount of €70-80 per tonne versus the second half of 2024, sources told Fastmarkets.
Initially, automakers were seeking for a triple-digit discounts of €100-150 per tonne, Fastmarkets reported.
Some contracts were heard done at €650-670 per tonne compared with €730-750 per tonne from the second half of 2024, sources told Fastmarkets.
For the full-year contracts, one source reported a discount of €80-90 per tonne versus full-year 2024 contracts.
Buyer sources told Fastmarkets that it remains to be seen whether the new levels would be sealed in deals, considering still-weak end-user demand.
“That’s a traditional move [from ArcelorMittal] to increase prices ahead of the year end. Will see how the market evolves in January,” one buyer in Europe said.
“It’s difficult to increase steel prices against the very low consumption,” a distributor said. “And we don’t see consumption increasing in the next couple of months, so it will be difficult for the EU mills to increase [steel] prices on a long-term basis just based on lower imports,” they added.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €561.13 per tonne on Tuesday, down by €0.75 per tonne from €561.88 per tonne on Monday.
The index was down by €0.30 per tonne week on week and by €1.37 per tonne month on month.
