Mills in both northern and southern Europe managed to lift transaction prices slightly in previous weeks, to €560 ($645) per tonne ex-works in the North and €530 per tonne ex-works in the South, helping improve overall market sentiment after a protracted downtrend that began in May.
Further increase, however, failed to be pushed through, with the majority of buy side sources considering new offers of €580-590 per tonne ex-works in the North and 550-555 per tonne ex-works in the South to be elevated and calling them rather “preparation for September” rather than current tradeable levels.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe was €560 on Friday, up negligibly by € 0.21 per tonne from €559.79 per tonne on July 31.
The Northern European index was down by €3.00 per tonne week on week, but up by €2.50 per tonne month on month.
In Southern Europe, meanwhile, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €528.33 per tonne on Friday, stable day on day.
The index was down by €6.67 per tonne week on week and similarly down month on month.
