In Northern Europe, buyers estimated that the achievable price was €750-780 ($813-845) per tonne ex-works for March-April delivery coil.
One source reported a transaction for a small tonnage at €800 per tonne ex-works.
Market participants said the official offer level from integrated steelmakers for April delivery was €800-820 per tonne ex-works, but this could not be widely corroborated in the market.
“[There have been] some sales at €800 [per tonne ex-works], but this is rather an exception, ” a buyer source said. “The vast majority of buyers wouldn’t book anything at this price.”
As a result, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at €760.63 per tonne on January 31, up by €3.75 per tonne from €756.88 per tonne on January 30.
The index was also up by €13.96 per tonne week on week and by €65.13 per tonne month on month.
The major concern remains sluggish end-user demand and market participants are worried that when some steelmaking capacities comes back online in the first quarter, it might put pressure on prices.
“Salzgitter and Tata Steel reignited big blast furnaces in January [and] everyone agrees that the recent price rise [for HRC] was mainly driven by supply tightness,” a distributor source said.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy at €753.75 per tonne on Wednesday, stable day on day.
The index was also up by €15.00 per tonne week on week and by €65.42 per tonne month on month.
Integrated mills in Italy were offering March-delivery HRC at €780 per tonne delivered (around €765-770 per tonne ex-works).
The tradable value for domestic HRC in Italy was said to be around €750-760 per tonne ex-works.
Trading was “on pause,” sources said, because buyers have sufficient stocks and are not hungry for bookings.
“Buyers are well-booked and want to see what happens with prices in February-March,” a seller in Italy said. “At the same time, it is unlikely that [HRC] prices will drop in the short run, because supply remains reduced and importing material is getting increasingly complicated.”
In the secondary market, 4 mm hot-rolled sheet was traded around €840-850 per tonne CPT, compared with €830-850 per tonne CPT seven days ago.
Import offers were reported at €655-680 per tonne CFR from Asia and at around €690 per tonne CFR from India, for March-April shipment.
Turkish mills were offering HRC to Italy at €700-715 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
