As coil prices consolidate in northwestern Europe, cold rolled coil activity stands out as being particularly slow.
One French trader bemoans the worrying silence on the CRC market. “When we send offers to our customers, we do not get any feedback whether they are interested at all. Normally, they give you at least some reply so that you know what’s going on,” he tells Kallanish. “But then, silence is an answer in itself, isn’t it?”
He believes his customers are also lacking feedback from their buyers. He sees prices for imports of CRC at around €690/tonne ($727) cfr Antwerp, following the recent uptick. This is not competitive with European offers that keep sitting at around €650/t ex-works, still defying the hike announcement of €40/t that came in early October.
One German buyer points out that CRC has, over time, become very much the domain of importers, while EU mills have lost interest in it. “They have built up so much galvanizing capacity here that they prefer going for the zinc version right away, no matter if with hot-rolled or cold-rolled base material,” he says.
A German analyst, too, notes that domestic prices for CRC have picked up minimally, but by less than he had expected, while hot rolled coil has risen by 2% since the beginning of the month to over €560/t. Looking ahead, however, he predicts an increase for both products by 7% until December, and possibly by a bit more for galv.
Christian Koehl Germany
