In Northern Europe, HRC with July lead times was heard offered at €620-630 ($709-743) per tonne ex-works or delivered from integrated mills.
But sources pointed out that mills had a certain degree of flexibility.
“[One German mill] offers [HRC] at €620 per tonne delivered but can step down some €10-15 [per tonne] to close a deal,” a buyer source in Germany said.
Another German supplier was heard to be maintaining offers at no lower than €620 per tonne delivered, citing reduced availability related to preparations of new equipment commencing in May-June.
Offers from a re-roller in the region were heard at €600 per tonne ex-works.
Buyer’s estimations of workable prices in the region were reported in the range of €590-600 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe was €600.83 per tonne on Wednesday, stable from Tuesday June 10.
The Northern European index was also down by €11.67 per tonne week on week and by €50.84 per tonne month on month.
Sentiment remained rather bearish, with even mill sources not ruling out domestic prices plunging below €600 per tonne ex-works in the short run.
“We already heard some standalone deals [for HRC] in Northern Europe done at levels below €600 per tonne ex-works. All [domestic HRC] prices tend to go in this direction,” a buyer source said.
“There is no [price] level [for HRC] below €600 per tonne ex-works [in Northern Europe] so far, but prices are heading there,” one supplier in the region said.
Meanwhile, in Italy, Fastmarkets’ daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €582.92 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €2.08 per tonne from €585 per tonne on Tuesday.
The Italian index was down by €10.21 per tonne week on week and by €28.75 per tonne month on month.
Italian coil buyers were still “in the wait-and-see mode,” a source said, expecting prices to dive deeper.
“Nobody wants to book [HRC] until they are sure prices hit rock bottom. There are a lot of speculative bids at €540-550 per tonne ex-works — which is unrealistic so far — but there is definitely more room for [HRC prices to] drop,” a buyer source said.
Offers from domestic suppliers were heard in the range of €590-610 per tonne delivered (€580-600 per tonne ex-works). An integrated supplier was offering at the higher end of the range.
Some re-rollers were still able to offer late-June lead times, while integrated mills offered July delivery.
Buyers estimated tradable prices at €570-590 per tonne ex-works, hinting at further downward potential due to limited demand.
Meanwhile, competitive imports also added some downward pressure on domestic prices.
Indonesian HRC was heard offered at €490-500 per tonne CFR to Italy for August shipment.
Indian material was offered around €535-540 per tonne CFR, while Turkish coil was available at €530-545 per tonne CFR duty paid.
HRC from Algeria was heard offered to Italy at €530-540 per tonne CFR.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
