Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €636.00 ($685.80) per tonne on Thursday, up by €0.79 per tonne from €635.21 per tonne on Wednesday.
The index was up by €2.25 per tonne week on week, but down by €4.00 per tonne month on month.
An integrated mill in the Benelux region was heard offering July-August delivery HRC at €650-660 per tonne ex-works.
In Germany, offers were heard at €640-650 per tonne delivered, which nets back to €630-640 per tonne ex-works for July-August delivery.
Buyers estimated achievable prices at €620-640 per tonne ex-works.
Domestic HRC prices in the region have been broadly flat for about a month now, with some minor fluctuations.
“For more than a month, the market situation has remained unchanged. Demand is low, [there is] no major restocking and mills are looking for orders,” a steel service center source in Germany told Fastmarkets.
Other market participants said European producers had short order books and lead times of about five weeks – or even shorter in some cases.
Some producers in the region attempted to increase their offer prices following the news about proposed changes to EU import safeguards two weeks ago, but demand was not strong enough to support the price rebound. Besides, the recent downtrend in global iron ore prices was also unsupportive of the uptrend.
“There is no demand, they ask to the air,” a trading source in Europe said.
Sources told Fastmarkets earlier this week they expect a major European steelmaker to come back to the market with higher prices by the end of this week, but there has been no official announcement as yet.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy Europe at €631.67 per tonne on Thursday, down by €0.21 per tonne from €631.88 per tonne on Wednesday.
The index was up by €1.15 per tonne week on week, but down by €3.33 per tonne month on month.
One local steelmaker was reportedly still offering HRC to the domestic market at €650 per tonne delivered (€640 per tonne ex-works).
And the tradable price were estimated by one market participant at €620 per tonne CPT (€610 per tonne ex-works) – although this was not widely confirmed by other sources.
Most buyers, meanwhile, put the workable level at €630 per tonne ex-works on Thursday.
“With current levels of demand [for flat steel], the best option is for mills [to] rollover prices for leftover July- and August-delivery [HRC],” a buyer source said.
Import offers were broadly flat, with minimal buying interest in overseas coil – mainly due to the long lead times, similar prices to those in the domestic market and concerns over import quotas, Fastmarkets understands.
On Thursday, offers of Turkish HRC were heard at €610-630 per tonne CFR, including the EU anti-dumping duty.
Offer from South Korea were reported at €600-610 per tonne CFR on Thursday, but Indian mills refrained from making any offers to Europe, sources said.
