Domestic hot-rolled coil prices in Europe moved further down in the week to 30 May, under pressure from competitive imports.
McCloskey’s weekly marker for domestic HRC prices in Northwest Europe dropped by €5/t on the week to €620/t ex-works.
Deals have been reported at €620/t ex-works Northwest Europe, while market participants estimated achievable prices at €615-640/t ex-works. A Benelux-based re-roller has been offering HRC at €600/t ex-works, providing their traditional discount compared with the integrated mills.
Official offers have been heard at around €650/t ex-works Northwest Europe.
McCloskey’s weekly marker for domestic HRC prices in Italy also decreased – by €10/t on the week to €590/t ex-works.
Deals have been reported at €580-600/t ex-works Italy.
Some market sources also pointed to low demand as a contributing factor to the price decline and that mills have been willing to sacrifice prices to
secure sales. The current bearish market has led to buyers avoiding bookings, further intensifying downward pressure.
“The sentiment is negative, and the only question is – where the price bottom would be?” an Italian trader said.
Other market participants, however, said that demand remained stable but due to the wide gap between domestic and import prices, EU mills had to reduce prices.
“Prices are slowly sliding down, but there is no freefall. There is some demand, the mills gradually fill order books and domestic prices go down to
narrow the gap with import offers,” a mill source said.
Amid the bearish mood in the European market, buyers have also been more cautious in their bookings of imported coil due to risks related to trade measures and the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).
The European market is expected to be less exposed to imports in the second half of the year due to impact of the upcoming CBAM implementation, market sources said. Importers will have to pay CBAM duties for material that will arrive in 2026.
If the material arrives late or has to remain in EU ports until 2026 due to safeguard quotas being filled, importers would be exposed to the CBAM
duties. Market sources estimated the duties at €30-80/t (https://mccloskey.opisnet.com/content/article/european-coil-and-green-steel-round-9)
depending on the production route and embedded emissions.
“Mills are chasing orders, sometimes near or below breakeven. Buyers are cautious, expecting more drops; imports are attractive but CBAM and
safeguard risks are still a concern,” a distributor said.
In Italy, HRC offers from Turkey have been reported at €530-550/t CIF, including anti-dumping duties, from Algeria at €530-540/t CIF, from India at €530-550/t CIF. HRC from Indonesia remained the cheapest, offering at €510/t CIF Italy. Some sources also reported offer from an Indonesian
steelmaker at €490/t CIF Italy, but majority of market sources said that such prices have been only available for big buyers.
Green steel market
Despite a higher number of enquiries for green steel reported, transactions have remained limited. Higher activity was reported in Scandinavia and
Benelux.
Market sources estimated workable premiums for green HRC at €60-100/t for the material with CO2 content around 0.8 mt under scopes 1-3 and
available in the spot market.
McCloskey’s reduced carbon market, calculated in reference to all green HRC premium indications reported in the week to publication, stands at
€62.26/t as of 30 May.
Green HRC from Turkey have been offered to Northwest Europe at €600/t CFR Antwerp, for the material with CO2 content around 0.9 mt.
Maria Tanatar
Associate Director, Steel
and Green Steel
