Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe, at €622.08 ($678.70) per tonne on Monday, up by €1.58 per tonne from €620.50 per tonne on August 2.
The index was down by €1.67 per tonne week on week and by €8.92 per tonne month on month.
Mills in Northern Europe were heard offering September-delivery HRC at €620-640 per tonne ex-works, with some suppliers even offering the material at €610-620 per tonne ex-works, Fastmarkets heard.
Trade sources estimated the workable market level at €600-630 per tonne ex-works.
According to producer sources, a degree of price rebound could be seen in September. This would be supported by the comparatively low stocks across the entire supply chain, combined with limited imports due to the new European safeguard measures.
But another producer source was skeptical about how sustainable such a rebound could be, because of the persistently slow real demand.
A buyer source was even more pessimistic, saying that “there will not be a price rebound any time soon.”
In Southern Europe, meanwhile, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy, at €620 per tonne on Monday, down by €0.63 per tonne from €620.63 per tonne on Friday.
The index was unchanged week on week but down by €4.10 per tonne month on month.
“The market is dead,” a buyer source told Fastmarkets. Producers in Italy have started summer maintenance work and were expected to come back to the market with fresh offers at the end of August, Fastmarkets heard.
The most recent offers heard at the end of July were at €640-650 per tonne delivered, which would net back to €630-640 per tonne ex-works.
But buyer sources estimated the workable market level at €620 per tonne ex-works.
In terms of imports, last week, offers from Turkey were heard at €570-590 per tonne CFR, including anti-dumping duty.
A Japanese offer was head at €580 per tonne CFR to Southern Europe, for October-shipment HRC.
Vietnamese HRC was offered at €560-570 per tonne CFR. For large volumes, offers were heard at €540 per tonne CFR to some regions.
“Currently, we see that customers are hesitating to buy [such material] due to the possible anti-dumping investigation against imports from ‘other countries’,” a buyer source told Fastmarkets.
The European Commission has received a complaint asking for an anti-dumping investigation to be launched into imports of steel hot-rolled coil from Vietnam.
According to the buyer source, similar investigations are possible for other origins as well.
Published by: Darina Kahramanova