Trading in the spot HRC market across Europe was close to nil on Friday. Buyers have been cautious with making new bookings, due to uncertainty over the price direction after the summer months.
Besides, most buyers have sufficient stocks and no immediate need to book new volumes, Fastmarkets heard.
“Consumption remains low; we can work with the level of stock we have. [The level of stock] is still quite high at some distributors and steel service centers, and we see fierce competition downstream,” one buyer in Europe told Fastmarkets.
For September-delivery HRC, integrated steelmakers in Europe mainly maintained offers at stable levels of around €630-650 ($684-706) per tonne ex-works, while tradeable values for such material were heard from buyer sources at €620-630 per tonnne ex-works.
For October delivery, some suppliers are targeting price hikes of around €20 per tonne, but market fundamentals are unsupportive of any price rise, according to sources.
“The market is oversupplied. Mills need to fill order books and this talk about price rises is not convincing – there is not enough demand,” a second buyer said.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel HRC index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €632.13 per tonne on Friday, down slightly by €0.37 per tonne from €632.50 on Thursday.
The index was up by €1.13 per tonne week on week but down by €3.08 per tonne month on month.
In Southern Europe, Fastmarkets calculated its corresponding daily steel HRC index domestic, exw Italy at €626.00 per tonne on Friday, down by €0.25 per tonne from €626.25 per tonne on Thursday.
The index was up by €1.90 per tonne week on week but down by €5.88 per tonne month on month.
The Italian market was also quiet, with buyers mainly keeping at sidelines.
September-delivery HRC was still being offered by a local supplier at €640-650 per tonne delivered, which corresponds to €630-640 per tonne ex-works.
Buyer sources estimated achievable prices at no higher than €620-630 per tonne ex-works, with sporadic trades reported at €620-625 per tonne ex-works in the week to Friday.
New import HRC offers were scarce. Key Asian suppliers – Vietnam, Japan and Taiwan – have exceeded their allocation for third-quarter deliveries, Fastmarkets reported.
Offers of HRC from Turkey were available at €610 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty.
From Japan, offers were heard at €600-610 per tonne CFR, for September-shipment coil.
Two sources reported an offer from South Korea at $660 per tonne CFR to Southern Europe.
