Weak demand from key end-user industries, especially the automotive and construction sectors, kept trading quiet in both the cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized steel markets across Europe, Fastmarkets understands.
In Italy, one supplier offered CRC at €680-690 ($750-761) per tonne delivered, equivalent to €670-680 per tonne ex-works, but no transaction was reported in the assessment week.
Lead times were reported within four to six weeks.
Buyers’ estimates of tradeable prices were heard at €650-660 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil domestic, ex-works Southern Europe was €660-670 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €20-30 per tonne from €690 per tonne last week.
Sources pointed out that the European market for commodity-grade CRC was dominated by imports due to a price disparity.
“Some Asian suppliers struggle to sell [hot-rolled coil] to Europe anymore because of new safeguard rules or looming anti-dumping cases, so they compensate by increased CRC sales,” a buyer in Italy said.
Offers from Japan and South Korea for late-October shipment CRC to Southern Europe were heard at €625-635 per tonne CFR in the week to Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in Italy and Spain, offers for HDG were heard at €700 per tonne delivered, which nets back to €690 per tonne ex-works.
Buyers’ estimates of achievable prices were heard around €670-680 per tonne ex-works.
Trading for HDG was also very slow. Buyers said they had sufficient stocks, considering weak order intake from end-user sectors, and therefore were postponing bookings.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel hot-dipped galvanized coil domestic, ex-works Southern Europe was €680-690 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €10-20 per tonne from €700 per tonne on September 4.
Import offers from Vietnam and India were reported at €690-705 per tonne CFR to Italy and Spain in the assessment week.
A booking of HDG with 0.5 mm thickness and Z100 coating was reported at $775 per tonne CFR to the Iberian market about two weeks earlier.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
