European mills have either increased or they were preparing to rise domestic offers for cold-rolled and hot-dipped galvanized coil in the week to Jan. 10 while trading activity has started to recover after Christmas holidays.
Major Northwest European steelmakers have increased offers on Jan. 9 for both CRC and HDG to Eur900-920/mt either ex-works or delivered, depending on location of particular mill and buyer.
“New offers are too high, but it makes sense for the mills to make the move and we will see some price recovery,” a German distributor said.
A lot of market participants have been concerned that real demand would not be strong enough to support a sustainable price recovery.
Although buyers have been mainly holding back from new deals taking time to estimate the market, they reported tradable values higher than a week earlier, although still below target prices of the mills.
The bullish sentiment has been supported by full order books of the mills; Northwest European steelmakers have been offering April-May arrival coil.
Limited interest in imported coil caused by geopolitical tensions in the Red Sea region and higher freight rates also contributed to the upwards sentiment in the market.
Platts assessed domestic cold-rolled coil prices in Northwest Europe at Eur830/mt ex-works Ruhr on Jan. 10, unchanged on the day and up by Eur35/mt on the week.
Tradable values have been heard at Eur800-850/mt ex-works Ruhr and offers at Eur920/mt ex-works Ruhr.
Platts assessed domestic prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil up by Eur70/mt on the week to Eur860/mt ex-works Ruhr on Jan. 10.
Tradable values have been reported at Eur850-870/mt ex-works Ruhr and offers at Eur900-920/mt ex-works Ruhr.
Author Maria Tanatar, Rituparna Nath
Platts is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
