Trading activity in the European hot-rolled coil market remained muted June 17, with sources commenting that the summer slowdown started several weeks too early.
“It’s too quiet in the market,” a German service center source said. “Summer holidays have not even started. Ex-stock demand is ok, it’s back to back, but new orders are lacking,” the source added.
Sources said that while industrial customers report a slight improvement, automotive demand remains uncertain.
While Turkish import offers have been heard to have moved up to Eur650-660/mt CIF Antwerp including antidumping duties, Asia-Pacific offers were heard scarce June 17. Sources said that the price gap between domestic and import is too narrow to consider import material.
“Imports need to be Eur30-50/mt below Europeans to make sense,” another German buyer said, adding that European mills are currently at their lower limit and would be holding official offer prices.
Lead times from European mills were heard to be still in July to August for HRC, with one German mill working on backlog orders due to maintenance works in May.
The Platts Northern European HRC assessment moved up Eur5 on the day to 635/mt EXW Ruhr June 17, while the Italian assessment for HRC remained stable at Eur620/mt EXW Italy.
Italian mills were heard to be offering Eur650-660/mt EXW Italy, with some concessions made.
One mill agent said that they expected higher demand following European elections and the safeguard quota announcement, but so far there has not been an uplift in demand or prices despite mills’ attempts a few weeks ago.
