“Buyers are more worried about purchasing imports because of the growing risk that material will arrive after the implementation of the new trade measures [replacing the safeguards] and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism,” a supplier in Southern Europe said.
HRC from Indonesia was on offer at €450-470 ($523-546) per tonne CFR in Southern Europe, edging higher at the top end of the range from €450-460 per tonne CFR on July 30.
And a large volume of HRC was said to have been shipped from Indonesia to Italy in late July at about €470 per tonne, sources said. Indonesia is exempt from EU safeguard quotas.
HRC from India, meanwhile, was on offer to Italy at €500-520 per tonne CFR, while the most recent deals were closed at €490 per tonne CFR in late July, according to market participants.
Offers from Turkey came in at about €510-520 per tonne CFR including the safeguard duty, up from the previous offer price of €500-510 per tonne CFR in late July, when deals were done at €490-495 per tonne CFR.
The highest offers to Southern Europe came from Algeria at €520-525 per tonne CFR and while Algeria does not have a quota, it can offer short lead times to due to its proximity just across the Mediterranean.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, import, cfr main port Southern Europe, was €450-520 per tonne on Wednesday, widening up from €450-500 per tonne a week earlier.
No offers were heard from Egypt, Japan or Vietnam, despite the European Commission announced final anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled steel from these countries on July 16. In some cases rates were slightly lower than provisional duties that took effect from April 7.
The provisional duties are valid until October, according to a notice in the EU’s Official Journal.
“After the final disclosure the duties come into force as soon as possible,” one steel European steel producer said. “[However], it only becomes official after publication [of the enforcement date] in the journal.”
Definitive duties are unlikely to have much effect on import volumes, a second producer source told Fastmarkets.
“The EU’s safeguarding measures and CBAM remain the bigger constraints”, the said.
And a trader source said: “The small [duty] reductions could be supportive, but they aren’t a game changer. Buyers are watching for other regulatory headwinds.”
