Activity in the European hot-rolled coil market remained muted on Feb. 12 as buyers have been holding back from building stocks.
“Everyone has enough material in stocks and the price-trend outlook is not positive, so there is no sense of urgency to make deals,” a trader said.
Buyers have also expressed concerns that the increase of domestic production following the restart of some of the furnaces that had been idled across Europe would not allow the prices to sustain at current level. In addition, real demand has remained slow, sources said.
“The price trend would depend on who can wait longer – mills or buyers,” another trader said.
Platts assessed domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northwest Europe at Eur745/mt ex-works Ruhr on Feb. 12, unchanged on day.
Tradable values were reported at Eur730-760/mt ex-works Ruhr, with the majority of tradable value indications heard around Eur740-750/mt ex-works Ruhr.
Platts assessed domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in South Europe down by Eur5/mt on day to Eur740/mt ex-works Italy on Feb. 12.
Tradable values have been reported at Eur740-750/mt ex-works Italy and one source estimated achievable prices at Eur710/mt ex-works Italy.
Author Maria Tanatar, maria.tanatar@
