Europe looks to purchase large tonnage of steel slab from Asia to fill supply gap, sources say

A large tonnage of steel slab from Indonesia has reportedly been booked to Europe recently to fill gaps in domestic supply, several sources have told Fastmarkets.
In the week beginning Monday April 10, a lot for over 100,000 tonnes of slab from Dexin Steel Indonesia was sold to Europe at around $650-660 per tonne CFR, Fastmarkets has heard.

Several sources told Fastmarkets that the buyer was ArcelorMittal, since the company has three blast-furnaces (BFs) out of operation in Europe and had recently informed customers about hot-rolled coil supply delays.

Other sources, however, said that parties involved in the sale were still negotiating.

ArcelorMittal had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Notably, the company’s 2.35 million tonne per year BF A in Gijon, Spain has been idled since March 22 due to a fire accident, and BF 4 in Dunkirk, France was stopped on March 30 due to another fire.

In addition, the company idled its 2.4 million tpy BF2 in Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland at the end of March for a planned upgrade.

Market sources said they expect at least two months of delivery delays for HRC from the company and an overall shortage of 1 million tpy with peak supply tightness anticipated during June-August.

The European HRC market has fallen quiet recently, with both buyers and mills said to be largely inactive while they await clues on the future direction of prices.

“Currently we are seeing two markets—a supplier’s market and a buyer’s market—and [neither] are connecting with each other. Suppliers seem to be determined to increase prices while buyers are abstaining from trading,” a distributor in the region said.

Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at €855.00 ($937) per tonne on Wednesday April 12, unchanged from a day earlier.

The index was down €4.38 per tonne week on week, but up by €24.17 per tonne month on month.

Published by: Vlada Novokreshchenova, Julia Bolotova