Market participants reported healthy order books at European hot-rolled coil producers for August and September production, despite the summer slowdown and high customer stocks, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday July 30.
HRC prices across Europe maintained their overall uptrend for July on Thursday, despite prices in Italy dipping for a second day.
“Mills have very limited capacity left,” one German buyer said. “Most have totally sold August and half of September, giving offers depending on their order book.”
A second German buyer told Fastmarkets there were “only limited quantities left for October [delivery].”
Offers in Northern Europe came in at €715-740 ($815-844) per tonne ex-works in late July versus estimates of a tradable level at around €710-725 per tonne ex-works.
There were some bids heard at around €700-710 per tonne ex-works, but Fastmarkets understands mills were reluctant to accept the lower end of the range, given the limited availability of the material.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe was calculated at €711.25 per tonne on July 30 up by €3.25 per tonne from €708.00 on July 29.
The index was up by €1.03 per tonne week on week and up by €28.12 per tonne month on month.
In Italy, offers came in at €715-725 per tonne ex-works, with indications of the tradable level at €700-710 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was €706.25 per tonne on July 30, down by €1.25 per tonne from €707.50 per tonne on July 29.
And while the Italian index was down by €0.63 per tonne week on week, it was still up by €38.75 per tonne month on month.
In terms of imports, Egyptian HRC was on offer at $730 (€640) per tonne CFR, including $30 per tonne in costs related to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Indian HRC, meanwhile, was available at $645-655 per tonne CFR, which is equivalent to €565-575 per tonne CFR.
And the latest offers of Turkish HRC came in at €590 per tonne CFR including anti-dumping duties.
