Most market participants were still on leave, planning to return after Monday January 6, Fastmarkets understands.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €565.00 ($588.48) per tonne on Tuesday, unchanged since December 20.
The index was up by €5.00 per tonne month on month.
It is unclear whether new, higher offers of HRC across Europe will be accepted by buyers after the market restarts in the first days of January.
Shortly before the Christmas and New Year holidays, ArcelorMittal announced an increase of €30 per tonne for offers of HRC with February/March delivery across Europe.
Another integrated mill in Northern Europe was heard to have followed the move, Fastmarkets understands.
Thus, the latest official offers for February/March-delivery HRC from Northern European mills were heard at €600-630 per tonne ex-works or delivered. But tradable levels just before the winter holiday break were heard at €560-580 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy at €562.50 per tonne on Tuesday, unchanged since December 23.
The index was up by €4.17 per tonne month on month.
Local suppliers’ latest official offers for HRC with delivery in February and March were heard at €580-620 per tonne delivered, which would net back to €570-610 per tonne ex-works.
Buyers’ estimations of the workable market level for such material were at €570-580 per tonne delivered, which is equivalent to €560-570 per tonne ex-works.
The market for imported HRC also remained quiet during the winter holiday slowdown.
Industry sources expected that the appetite for import bookings would remain low due to recent developments with safeguards and a pending anti-dumping probe against Egypt, India, Japan and Vietnam.
The latest import offers of February-shipment HRC from Turkey to Italy were heard at $590 per tonne CFR including the anti-dumping duty.
Just before the holiday break across Europe, South Korea-origin coil was on offer to Italy at €580 per tonne CFR, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
In mid-December, a transaction for Ukrainian HRC to Italy was heard at €530 per tonne CFR.
