European HRC buyers were partially accepting higher offers in recent trades, sources said.
“Buyers are still cautious with volumes and instead of buying, for example, 5,000 tonnes [of HRC, they will] book 2,500. But inquiries did improve,” a mill source in Northern Europe said.
First-tier suppliers in Northern Europe were offering HRC with April-May lead times at €630-660 ($659-690) per tonne delivered (€620-640 per tonne ex-works).
Transactions were reported at €615-620 per tonne ex-works in Germany.
Italy-origin HRC with April lead times was offered in Germany at €640-650 per tonne delivered.
As a result, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €618.13 per tonne on Friday, up by €7.25 per tonne from €610.88 per tonne on the previous day.
The Northern European index was up by €14.38 per tonne week on week and by €40.63 per tonne month on month.
Industry sources expected the uptrend to persist in the upcoming weeks – supported by restocking and limited availability of imports.
But several buyers sources expressed concerns about the viability of the further price increase, considering slow end-user demand.
“This entire [HRC] price recovery cannot be entirely based on the import situation. There is no major recovery in sight for steel-consuming industries: construction, automotive, etc,” a buyer said.
“It’s difficult to say [if the price recovery will continue]. Maybe we will see a slight [demand] improvement in the second quarter, but will it be enough?,” a second buyer said.
Sources previously said they expect more clarity regarding new safeguards measures next week.
Meanwhile, in Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €607.08 per tonne on Friday, up by €7.08 per tonne from €600.00 per tonne on Thursday.
The index was up by €11.66 per tonne week on week and up by €33.33 per tonne month on month.
In Italy, buyers estimated achievable prices at €600-610 per tonne ex-works on Friday.
Italian producers were offering April-delivery HRC at €620-640 per tonne delivered (€610-630 per tonne ex-works).
In the week to Friday, import HRC offers were broadly stable.
Most overseas suppliers were offering HRC to Europe with lead times in the second quarter, making imports increasingly risky since new safeguard measures are expected to come into effect in April.
From Asia, offers were reported at €550-570 per tonne CFR to Italy. Offers from Ukraine were reported within a similar range.
HRC from Turkey was on offer to Italy at €590-600 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty, sources told Fastmarkets. Several sources said that for big volumes it was possible to achieve €570-580 per tonne CFR. Several sources reported deals within the range €570-580 per tonne CFR from Turkey to Italy during the assessment week, but no further details were available at the time of publication.
