Italy
During the week starting February 3, Italian re-rollers increased their offer prices for heavy plate, citing mounting costs, Fastmarkets reported.
Notably, new offer prices for March-delivery material stood around €660-670 ($682-692) per tonne ex-works, against the previous offers of €650 per tonne ex-works.
Tradeable prices were reported at higher levels during the assessment week, at €630-650 per tonne ex-works, compared with €615-630 per tonne ex-works in late January.
Most sources estimated achievable prices at €640-650 per tonne ex-works during the assessment week.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate 8-40mm, exw Southern Europe remained at €640-650 per tonne on Wednesday, narrowing upward by €10 per tonne from €630-650 per tonne seven days earlier.
Sources said that mills still have short order books, but buying has started to pick up recently from very low levels observed in January.
“The plate market looks better than one month ago. Activity is still not booming, but there are more inquiries… besides, imports are no longer a safe option [due to safeguards],” a buyer source said.
The major driver behind the price increases was a spike in input costs — notably high imported slab and electricity prices in Italy, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel slab, import, cif Italy widened upward by $5 per tonne to $480-520 per tonne on February 7, from $480-515 per tonne on January 31.
Sources argued that for plate-quality slab “it was impossible to get slab below $500 per tonne CIF,” Fastmarkets heard.
“Selling [heavy plate] at €620-630 [per tonne ex-works] is loss making for everyone,” an Italian re-roller said.
Meanwhile, new import offers were scarce and largely not considered workable by EU buyers, considering long lead times and uncertainty around new safeguards.
From Asia, plate offers for April-May arrival were heard at €580-600 per tonne CFR.
“Demand for imported plate in Italy vanished. Local suppliers can offer competitive prices and short delivery times compared with the long import deliveries of three to four months,” a buyer source said.
Northern Europe
In Northern Europe, trading in the spot market remained largely quiet, sources said. Buyers were mainly booking some small volumes of commodity-grade plate to cover their urgent needs.
The situation looked more optimistic in “the project business with higher grades,” where mills had received orders for different renewable energy projects, a buyer source based in Germany told Fastmarkets.
One German mill, traditionally focused on project business, was offering heavy plate with lead times of around six weeks at €750-790 per tonne ex-works.
Another German supplier was offering plate at €690-730 per tonne from one location and €680-700 from another.
Estimates of tradeable values form buyers were reported at €670-700 per tonne ex-works, with most indications coming in at €680-700 per tonne ex-works.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate 8-40mm, exw Northern Europe was €680-700 per tonne on Wednesday, widening upward by €10 per tonne from €680-690 per tonne on February 5.
A re-roller in the Czech Republic was offering S275-grade plate at €670 per tonne ex-works, but mainly to locations in Central Europe. Achievable prices for such material were reported at €650-660 per tonne ex-works. The mill was well-booked and offering delivery in the second half of April and early May already.
A newly restarted Polish integrated mill was aiming for €650-660 per tonne ex-works for February rolling.
A Bulgarian producer was aiming for €670-680 per tonne ex-works.
