Local cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized coil prices increased in Europe by the middle of July following the announcement of the new, tighter import quotas.
Market participants noted that the most dramatic effect will be on CRC due to limited local capacities, while interest in import material is limited now due to safeguards, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and an ongoing anti-dumping investigation.
In Northern Europe, new CRC offers came at €830-850 ($947-970) per tonne delivered or €815-835 per tonne ex-works, while tradeable levels were estimated at €800-820 per tonne ex-works, moving up from €780-800 per tonne ex works last week.
One buyer source from Germany said that they were buying only limited volumes due to rather restricted demand.
At the same time another buyer source from Germany said that €800 per tonne would already be less likely achievable for primary material and estimated the tradeable level closer to €820 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil domestic, exw Northern Europe was €800-820 per tonne on Wednesday July 15, up from €780-800 per tonne on July 8.
In Southern Europe new CRC offers came at €840-850 per tonne ex-works, with sellers indicating €830-840 per tonne ex-works could be potentially achieved in new deals.
Nevertheless, no transactions had been confirmed at these levels by the time of publication.
Thus, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil domestic, exw Southern Europe increased to €800-830 per tonne on July 15, up from €790-800 per tonne on July 8.
HDG offers in Northern Europe varied within the range of €805-825 per tonne ex-works, slightly below asking prices for CRC, which is an unusual situation as HDG is traditionally priced above CRC.
But due to the aforementioned local shortage of CRC, as well as the fact that, in HDG production, annealing comes for free, CRC prices rose to become either in line with or slightly higher than those for HDG.
Fastmarkets weekly price assessment for steel hot-dipped galvanized coil domestic, exw Northern Europe was €800-820 per tonne on July 15, up from €780-800 per tonne on July 8.
In Southern Europe, HDG offers varied within the wide range of €840-865 per tonne ex-works.
The market leader announced new offers at €880 per tonne delivered, which is equivalent to €665 per tonne ex-works.
Nevertheless, most recent indications of tradeable levels came at €800-820 per tonne ex-works during the reported week, with most of them closer to the upper end of the range.
Fastmarkets weekly price assessment for steel hot-dipped galvanized coil domestic, exw Southern Europe was €800-820 per tonne on July 15, up from €790-800 per tonne on July 8.
