Leading European steelmaker ArcelorMittal has raised its offer prices for hot-rolled coil across Europe by another €30 ($35) per tonne for April delivery, with even bigger rises for cold-rolled and hot-dip galvanized coil, Fastmarkets heard on Tuesday January 20.
Several industry sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Fastmarkets that ArcelorMittal had announced a price increase of €30 per tonne for April-delivery HRC, with new offers at €700 per tonne base delivered, compared with €670 per tonne base delivered for March delivery coil.
ArcelorMittal also announced new offers for downstream flat steel — cold-rolled coil and hot-dip galvanized coil.
Notably, offers for April delivery HDG from the supplier were reported at €820 per tonne base delivered, compared with €780 per tonne base delivered for March.
And for CRC, offers were reported even higher — at €830 per tonne base delivered for April lead times.
The CRC market in Europe is traditionally dominated by imports, especially in the commodity grades segment, but recent regulations developments — notably an anti-dumping investigation, targeting CRC originating in India, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam, and covering around 65% of the EU’s total CRC imports — curbed import options. On top of that, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) rollout as of January 1 also limited new imports.
ArcelorMittal’s new offers have not been traded so far, but market sources noted that sentiment in the European flat steel market was becoming increasingly bullish.
But sources pointed out that the recent price increases achieved in the European flat steel market were driven entirely by shifting trade regulations — notably CBAM and new trade regime, while real demand remained sluggish.
“This is not a demand-driven increase. Flat steel prices are edging up yes, though this is largely driven by concerns over CBAM-related costs and potential new safeguards rather than underlying demand,” a buyer in the Benelux area said.
An Italian buyer said that only a limited number of companies are financially equipped to handle CBAM, leading to a sharp slowdown in import activity. As a result, reliance on domestic steel is expected to increase significantly this year, with imports becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
In January, European HRC prices continued climbing slowly, with buyer sources pointing out increased reliance on European mills, while new imports became “unmanageable.”
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was €640.75 per tonne on January 20, up by €0.12 per tonne from €640.63 per tonne on January 19.
So far, tradable prices for HRC across Europe have remained below ArcelorMittal’s target offers — with recent trades in Northern Europe reported at €630-640 per tonne ex-works.
