Prices for domestic steel hot-rolled coil increased in both Northern Europe and Italy on Wednesday July 8, with trading resuming slightly after the new EU steel import quotas came into force on July 1, but the market was dominated by mills offering material for September delivery, sources told Fastmarkets.
Offers in Italy were reported within the range of €705-735 ($806-840) per tonne ex-works for September delivery, but the prices were discarded due to a lack of buying interest at this level.
Meanwhile, a supplier said workable prices in the market were at €690 per tonne ex-works, but “not below” that level. The same supplier reported offers at €710 per tonne ex-works for September shipment.
The latest deals for HRC in Italy were reported at €685-690 per tonne ex-works on Monday July 6, but a buyer could not confirm this and said there were “no effective deals at this level.”
“Suppliers are not willing to negotiate; no one is willing to buy, because prices are increasing,” the same source said on Wednesday, adding that new transactions happened very rarely. They also said no big volumes were expected to be ordered, as the market needed to pass the holiday time.
The same buyer said they expect prices for HRC will rise further by the end of September, up to €800 per tonne delivered (€785 per tonne ex-works).
As a result, Fastmarkets’ assessment of the daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was €688.75 per tonne on July 8, up by €10 per tonne from €678.75 per tonne on July 7.
The index was up by €21.25 per tonne week on week and up by €7.92 per tonne month on month.
In Northern Europe, market activity was slowly picking up, but prices were also reported mainly for September delivery.
Sources said the latest offers were at €740 per tonne ex-works on Wednesday, with deals concluded at €710 per tonne ex-works, all for shipment in September. The offers were discarded in July 8’s index due to a lack of buying interest.
A buyer reported a deal at €685-700 per tonne ex-works for August delivery on the same day, but added that in the new round mills will be offering September delivery.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe was calculated at €701.25 per tonne on July 8, also up by €10 per tonne from €691.25 per tonne on July 7.
The index was up by €19.37 per tonne week on week and up by €9.25 per tonne month on month.
Meanwhile, Turkey has already exceeded its quarterly import quota volume for HRC, just one week after the new quota regime was announced on June 30, according to European Commission data seen by Fastmarkets on July 7.
The data showed that 374,336.06 tonnes of Turkish HRC imports were awaiting allocation against a country-specific quarterly quota volume of 160,573.74 tonnes. That exceeded the available quota volume by 213,762.32 tonnes, or 133.1%, according to Fastmarkets’ calculations.
A market source reported a cargo of Turkish HRC being booked at €565 per tonne CFR Italy this week. Another market participant, however, voiced some doubts, considering the situation with the quota.
Other countries such as India and Indonesia also used more than half of their HRC import quota for the third quarter of the year.
India had used 101,924.69 tonnes of its 149,318.61-tonne quota, leaving 31.7% available, while Indonesia had used 16,318.95 tonnes of its 31,834.46-tonne allocation, leaving 48.7% available, according to Commission data.
A deal from India to Southern Europe was reported at $650-655 per tonne CFR on July 8, while offers from Indonesia came at €530 per tonne CFR on the same day.
Egyptian material was offered at $700 per tonne CFR.
Fastmarkets weekly assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr main port Southern Europe was €565-610 per tonne on July 8, compared with €570-610 per tonne on July 1.
