The markets for steel hot-rolled coil were largely quiet in Europe on Monday July 21. Seasonal holidays that have already started in the North, as well as scheduled maintenance in August, added to already modest demand, with most buyers preferring to take a cautious stance and wait to see how the situation would develop after the summer break.
Last week, mills in Northern Europe started to test the market with somewhat higher offers of €560-580 ($655-679) per tonne ex-works], using as leverage the introduction of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in 2026, and potential lower interest in importing material scheduled for delivery early next year.
As of Monday, several buy-side sources said some mills in Germany have no material available for September deliveries, while one market source said that the market leader had no interest in the spot market at the moment, with others not offering at prices below €560 per tonne ex-works.
“I think the time when you could buy material below €550 [per tonne] exw is over,” one processor from Germany said.
Nevertheless, some buyers voiced doubts that these new higher levels would be easily accepted, at least in the near term, due to the lack of demand.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was €550.83 ($644.46) per tonne on July 21, down from €551.67 per tonne on July 18.
Producers in Italy followed the lead of their colleagues in Northern Europe, with fresh offers at €540-550 per tonne ex-works, but workable prices still within the range of €510-520 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy, was calculated at €523.33 per tonne on July 21, down from €525 per tonne ex-works on July 18.
The Italian market was comparatively more strongly influenced by import offers than Northern Europe.
Offers of Indonesian coil scheduled for delivery in September varied within the range of €450-460 per tonne CFR.
Algerian material was reported available at €500 per tonne CFR.
In Northern Europe, Indian coil was available at $590 per tonne CFR.
