December-delivery HRC was said to be largely sold out at first-tier suppliers.
Bids for January delivery coil were reported at €560-580 ($591-613) per tonne ex-works, but a mill source told Fastmarkets that “for the first quarter 2025, the minimum HRC price is €600 [per tonne ex-works.”
And HRC offers for first-quarter delivery coil came in at €600-620 per tonne ex-works on Tuesday, sources said.
One booking was heard at €600 per tonne delivered in Germany, and some sources said that price could be effective, but the specification could not be confirmed by the time of publication.
“It’s hard to achieve higher [HRC] prices in a market [with] weak automotive [demand and] fierce competition between steel service centers because of high inventories and cashflow needs,” a buyer in Germany said.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €562.67 per tonne on Tuesday, down by €0.66 per tonne from €563.33 per tonne on November 18.
The index was, however, up by €3.92 per tonne week on week and by €9.54 per tonne month on month.
In Southern Europe, Fastmarkets calculated its steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy at €557.32 per tonne on Tuesday, down by just €0.18 per tonne from €557.50 per tonne on Monday.
But the Italian index was up by €4.94 per tonne week on week and by €6.07 per tonne month on month.
The market in Italy was also mostly quiet, with local mills not yet managing to seal higher offers in any deals, Fastmarkets understands.
HRC with lead times in the first quarter of 2025 was on offer from local suppliers at €600 per tonne delivered, which would net back to €590 per tonne ex-works.
Buyer estimates of the tradable value for such material came in at around €570-580 per tonne delivered (€560-570 per tonne ex-works).
And some buyer estimates were even lower – at closer to €550 per tonne ex-works – with weak demand and fierce competition downstream cited as the main reasons for the low prices.
In the secondary market, cut-to-length HRC was still available at around €620-630 per tonne CPT, sources said – unchanged since mid-October.
“Demand [for steel] is not improving and steel mills have not announced any production cuts. So there will be no strong price rebound [for HRC] despite the mills announcing increased prices for the first quarter of 2025,” a buyer source said.
Other market participants said that import restrictions had only provided limited support to the European market and the lack of real demand was the key obstacle to any HRC price rebound.
“The lack of new imports will start to be visible in the market in March-April [2025]. So far, the ports are still full; stocks are full,” a buyer source in Italy said.
Aside from the trade risks – such as EU safeguards and the pending anti-dumping probe into HRC from certain origins – the current exchange rate between the US dollar and the euro is making imports more expensive.
Turkey-origin HRC was on offer at €610-620 per tonne CFR Italy, including the anti-dumping duty.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
