Domestic prices for steel hot-rolled coil edged up in Italy on Friday July 17 amid higher levels for material for delivery in September, but remained stable in Northern Europe with market participants largely inactive, source told Fastmarkets.
In Italy, one producer said they had sold HRC at €700 ($802) per tonne ex-works for shipment in September, adding that “this seems to be the market level now, especially considering the confusion with the Turkish HRC quota and high risk of final prices for Turkish material.”
Meanwhile, a buyer said offers for September-delivery material were at €740 per tonne delivered (€725 per tonne ex-works), while indicating that workable prices were at least €720-730 per tonne delivered (€705-715 per tonne ex-works) for the same period.
The offer price was not included in the index calculation due to limited trading at that level.
When asked whether any material was still available for earlier delivery, the buyer said that none of the new rolling was being offered for shipment before September.
“Mills are not in a rush to sell; they are in a very safe position,” the buyer source said, adding that the market was very close to the summer vacation time, so new negotiations would take place from September, when there would be a “significant rebound in the activity.“
Fastmarkets’ daily steel HRC index domestic, exw Italy was €705 per tonne on Friday, up by €4 per tonne day on day from €701 per tonne.
The index was up by €12.19 per tonne week on week and up by €21.25 per tonne month on month.
On the import side, the latest HRC activity included a deal from Vietnam to Southern Europe heard at $730-735 per tonne CFR during the week, which was not widely confirmed by market sources.
Egypt sold material to Southern Europe at $700 per tonne CFR, with costs related to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) split between the buyer and the seller, according to sources.
In the Northern European local HRC market, a buyer reported offers for material scheduled for delivery in September at €740 per tonne ex-works, adding that the “last round of booking was at €710 [per tonne ex-works], but nothing more [was] available at this level.”
Other market participants were mostly quiet on Friday, so the higher offer price was not considered in the index due to a lack of corroboration.
Additionally, due to a lack of input on Friday, prices collected in previous days were carried over to Friday’s index, in line with Fastmarkets’ methodology.
The latest deals were heard at €685-725 per tonne ex-works for September delivery on Wednesday July 15, when a buyer also reported an indication for workable levels at €705-725 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel HRC index domestic, exw Northern Europe was calculated at €710.00 per tonne on Friday, unchanged day on day.
The index was up by €5 per tonne week on week and up by €22 per tonne month on month.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Germany-based steel producer Thyssenkrupp Steel told Fastmarkets that it had reduced hot metal production at its Duisburg site due to raw materials supply disruptions, caused by the low water levels on the Rhine River.
The steelmaker’s hot strip mill in the Bruckhausen area has installed capacity for HRC of around 3 million tonnes per year but said on Thursday that deliveries to its customers were not affected as a result of this situation.
