EU flat steel distributor shipments show small increase for Jan-Feb 2023

European distributors of flat steel products reported marginally higher year-on-year shipments for January-February 2023, which reflected a positive trend in hot-rolled coil market, the regional steel industry association EUROMETAL said on Thursday March 30.

In January 2023, flat steel shipments in the EU increased by 3.80% year on year. In January-February 2023, shipments rose 0.50% year on year.

“Positive trend [was observed] for hot-rolled flat products only,” EUROMETAL said in a release seen by Fastmarkets.

European HRC prices started to rebound in January-February 2023 from the low levels in the last months of 2022. The recovery was driven by improved apparent steel demand and tighter supply resulting from output cuts at European mills in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Fastmarkets’ calculation of its steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe averaged €720.36 ($780.91) per tonne in January 2023, up sharply from an average of €642.73 per tonne in December 2022.

The uptrend in the HRC market continued in February-March 2023, with Fastmarkets latest calculation of daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at €847.63 per tonne on March 30, up by €3.88 per tonne from €843.75 per tonne on Wednesday March 29.

EUROMETAL’s stock index for flat steel service centers in the EU was 101 in February 2023, compared with 106 in February 2022. The index uses the 2018 average as its 100-point basis.

Stock levels at EU steel service centers averaged 73 days’ worth of supply in February 2022, compared with 71 days in the corresponding month of 2022.

Published by: Julia Bolotova