The market slowly restarted after the Christmas and New Year holiday lull, but trading remained almost non-existent.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €566.25 per tonne on Wednesday, up by €0.42 per tonne from €565.83 ($587.92) per tonne the previous day.
The index was up by €1.25 per tonne week on week and by €2.08 per tonne month on month.
Not many producers have followed the move of ArcelorMittal, who announced an increase in its HRC offers by €30 per tonne across Europe just before the holidays, Fastmarkets understands.
Offer prices from ArcelorMittal with lead times in February-March were heard at €630 per tonne ex-works or delivered in Northern Europe.
“We have offers from the [Northern European] mills at €580 per tonne ex-woks. And even at these levels, the traded volumes are low. Demand remains very dull,” a buyer source based in Northern Europe told Fastmarkets.
The source added that mills could easily accept €570 per tonne ex-works for larger volumes.
A second buyer source also cited an offer from a producer based in the Benelux region at €580 per tonne ex-works.
“If you are insistent, you can get a discount of €20 per tonne ex-works,” the second buyer source said.
According to this source, the workable level for HRC in Northern Europe could be even lower, at €540-560 per tonne ex-works.
No major deals were heard in the market.
In terms of imports, India was heard offering HRC with March shipment at €540-550 per tonne CFR Antwerp.
And Turkish HRC was on offer at €560 per tonne CFR Antwerp.
These offers were considered not workable, however, because of long delivery times and the small difference with the domestic prices.
“If the European prices do not move up, it will be difficult to import any volumes,” the first buyer told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets calculated its corresponding daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy at €562.50 per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday.
The index was stable week on week, but up by €2.08 per tonne month on month.
The HRC market in Italy was also very quiet after the holidays.
“I have not heard any fresh offers from the Italian suppliers so far. We should probably wait until next week to spot some activity,” an Italy-based buyer source told Fastmarkets.
Tradable values were estimated by buyers at €560-570 per tonne ex-works, depending on the supplier.
The market for imported coil was muted.
Import offers of HRC to Italy similar to those reported for the Northern European market were heard.
Buyers estimated tradeable values for imports at €520-530 per tonne CFR, but no such offers were available in the market.
