Leading European suppliers lowered their offers to around €650 ($686.71) per tonne ex-works from €700 per tonne ex-works. First-tier mills in Northern European mills were offering July-delivery coil around €640-650 per tonne ex-works or delivered.
Italy-origin coil was offered to Germany at €640-650 per tonne delivered.
Transactions were heard at €620-640 per tonne ex-works in Germany and the Benelux region, with buyer estimates of tradeable values heard at €620-630 per tonne ex-works.
“European mills are chasing for orders ahead of summer breaks. The order book situation for some producers is not looking good; there are gaps to be filled and buyers are holding back in the declining market,” one buyer in Germany told Fastmarkets. “Some suppliers are even selling coil below breakeven costs to generate cashflow.”
Trading was slow, with buyers remaining cautious with booking big tonnages in an uncertain market.
“Demand for commodity-grade HRC is weak and we have summer holidays ahead, so improvement is unlikely,” a distributor source said.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe was €628.75 per tonne on Wednesday, up by €0.18 per tonne from €628.57 per tonne on May 27.
The index was down by €4.58 per tonne week on week and down by €27.25 per tonne month on month.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Italy was €600 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €1.25 per tonne from €601.25 per tonne on Tuesday.
The Italian index was down by €5.00 per tonne week on week and by €27.50 per tonne month on month.
In Italy, trading was also muted.
Buyers estimated achievable prices at €590-600 per tonne ex-works, while offers were heard at €620 per tonne ex-works.
Meanwhile, import HRC prices to Europe were little changed during the week to Friday.
Despite the wide gap with domestic prices, big buyers were looking at import bookings, due to risks related to safeguard measures, sources said.
“Indonesia offers July production/August shipment for HRC. That means [the HRC] arrives to Europe in September and chances are high that it can only be custom cleared on January 1, 2026 to avoid safeguards. And [Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism] is coming into force in 2026, so there are a lot of uncertainties,” a mill source told Fastmarkets.
July-shipment HRC from Turkey was available at an average price of €550-560 per tonne, duty paid. One supplier with lower duties was heard offering of €540-545 per tonne, duty paid.
Algerian HRC was offered to Italy at €540 per tonne CFR.
An offer was reported from an Indonesian mill at €520-530 per tonne CFR.
HRC from India and Thailand was offered at €560-570 per tonne CFR Italy.
