Trading activity in the European hot-rolled coil market remained low on May 17 and prices remained fairly stable.
Real demand has remained low, and distributors have been avoiding building stocks, focusing on purchases of volumes needed to fill gaps in their portfolios.
Despite limited trading activity, market sources believe that prices would remain stable in the short run.
“The market is very quiet. Demand from every end-user segment is low and distributors avoid bookings,” a German service center said. “I do not think that the prices would decline as the mills understand that the lower prices would not drive sales up.”
Platts assessed domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northwest Europe up Eur5/mt on the day at Eur635/mt ex-works Ruhr on May 17.
Deals were reported at Eur630-640/mt ex-works Ruhr.
Tradable values have been reported at Eur630/mt ex-works Ruhr.
The lowest offers were reported at Eur630-640/mt ex-works Ruhr.
Platts assessed domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in South Europe at Eur625/mt ex-works Italy on May 17, unchanged on the day.
Tradable values have been reported at Eur620-630/mt ex-works Italy and offers at the equivalent of Eur640/mt ex-works Italy.
Interest in imported HRC from Asia was limited due to longer lead times, uncompetitive prices and risks related to possible changes in the safeguard measures after a review that is scheduled to end by June 30.
The lowest offers from Turkey were reported at Eur620/mt CIF Italy, including anti-dumping duties, and offers from Asia were heard at Eur610-630/mt CIF Italy.
Maria Tanatar | Devbrat Saha
