European HRC producers keep offer prices flat in quiet market

Trading remained flat in the European hot-rolled coil market on Wednesday June 19, with prices broadly steady and most mills rolling over offers for August-delivery coil, despite some attempts to push prices higher, sources told Fastmarkets.

Slow demand and a downtrend in raw materials prices were unsupportive of an HRC price increase, sources said.

Most mills in Northern Europe were offering August delivery HRC, but offer prices were broadly unchanged compared with those offered for July delivery – although some suppliers were rumored to still have limited tonnages for July delivery.

“We are heading into the summer lull; trading is not going to rebound. If someone needs September delivery, mills try to charge some €20 per tonne higher; but those attempts [have not been] successful so far,” a buyer in Germany said.

Another buyer source in Northern Europe said. “All European steelmakers are in a tough situation – no demand means no [price] increases.”

German mills were heard offering HRC at €640-650 ($687-697) per tonne delivered, which would net back to €630-640 per tonne ex-works; sources said, with buyers bidding at €10-15 per tonne below that.

And a booking of Italy-origin coil to Germany was reported by several sources around €640-650 per tonne delivered.

Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €630.88 ($676.97) per tonne on Wednesday, down by €1.62 per tonne from €632.50 per tonne on June 18.

The index was down by €4.33 per tonne week on week and by €7.45 per tonne month on month.

Fastmarkets calculated its corresponding daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy at €628.13 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €1.45 per tonne from €629.58 per tonne on Tuesday.

The index was down by €3.75 per tonne week on week and by €4.79 per tonne month on month.

Market conditions in Italy were similar, with mainly sporadic deals for limited tonnages heard since Monday.

Official offers from a local mill were still at €650 per tonne delivered (€640 per tonne ex-works), sources said, but deals were reported at €620-630 per tonne ex-works.

Buyer estimates of tradable prices were around €610-630 per tonne ex-works.

“The slow summer season is almost here and the mills still have a lot [of HRC] to sell, so discounts are possible for August delivery,” a steel service center source in Italy said.

Mills, meanwhile, were reportedly planning to increase prices for September-delivery HRC, although it remains to be seen whether the market will be ready to accept higher prices.

New import offers were scarce, sources told Fastmarkets.

Turkish mills reportedly increased offers by €30 per tonne to around €640 per tonne CFR, including the EU anti-dumping duty, before stepping away for the Eid-al-Adha holiday on June 16-21.

But buyers said the new offers were not attractive, being basically the same as European prices.

“The gap with imports needs to be at least €40-50 per tonne to make [imports] workable,” a buyer source in Italy said.

Asian suppliers, meanwhile, largely stayed on the sidelines, awaiting official confirmation of the new EU steel import safeguard measures.

Published by: Julia Bolotova

fastmarkets.com