In Northern Europe, trading was quiet, with no changes in offer prices or in the workable estimates for HRC trades.
“The market is almost dead because of holidays across Europe. There will probably be no change until the Made in Steel event [in Milan, May 6-8],” one buy-side source said.
Suppliers in the Benelux region and Germany kept their HRC offers with June-July lead times around €670-700 ($759-793) per tonne ex-works, but these were considered somewhat elevated.
“So far, prices are firm, but it’s not clear if the target offers can be achieved in deals because real demand remains low. And the uptrend we had recently was mainly due to trade measures and limited imports,” a buy-side source said.
In general, market sources estimated workable prices within the range of €640-660 per tonne ex-works.
As a result, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at €650.00 per tonne on April 24, down by €2.00 per tonne from €652.00 per tonne on April 23.
The market in Southern Europe was also quiet due to holidays. Offers varied within the range of €630-640 per tonne ex-works, with some business done within the range of €620-630 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy, inched up day on day by €2.08 per tonne on April 24, to €627.50 per tonne.
The import trade was quiet with offers rising slightly on a reported improvement in prices in the Chinese market, but interest was limited.
Indian HRC was available at €580 per tonne CFR, compared with €565 per tonne CFR heard earlier this week. Meanwhile, Turkish material was offered at €580-600 per tonne CFR versus €560-570 per tonne CFR earlier this week.
“I guess India will show less interest [in exports] in the coming weeks,” one trader said, “due to the domestic market growing.”
Published by: Vlada Novokreshchenova
