The steel hot-rolled coil market in Europe remained quiet on Tuesday July 22, with many market participants in Northern Europe on holiday and those in Italy digesting higher offer prices from some local mills.
Mills in Northern Europe had mostly filled their September order books, with some minor tonnages remaining, and thus offered mainly October tonnages at prices no lower than €560 ($656) per tonne ex-works.
Activity among customers was also quiet due to holidays and the seasonal maintenance period. Trading was expected to be subdued until September.
Some rare estimates of workable prices were heard at €550 per tonne ex-works, but no major sales were heard during the day.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was €555.00 ($650.59) per tonne on July 22, up from €550.83 per tonne on July 21.
The Italian HRC market was splintered, because of the limited availability of material from domestic mills.
The market leader increased its offer prices to €540-550 per tonne ex-works, following the lead of fellow mills in Northern Europe, but one customer said that “its price is very much case-by-case and the mill is very firm.”
Meanwhile, a re-roller was said to be struggling to sell at €520 per tonne ex-works.
And a third participant was out of the market, facing delays on previous orders and having no spare capacity for new orders.
“There is no overall workable price in the Italian domestic market these days,” a local source said.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy, was calculated at €530.63 per tonne on July 22, up from €523.33 per tonne ex-works on July 21.
