The week before, ArcelorMittal announced a price increase of €30 ($31) per tonne for April/May-delivery HRC across Europe, with offers now reaching €660 per tonne ex-works or delivered, depending on the destination.
But other mills in Northern Europe refrained from following the move, keeping their offers for the second quarter of 2025 at €620-630 per tonne ex-works, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
However, buyers were cautious, and the traded volumes were limited, Fastmarkets understands.
“Final customers and stockholders still do not undertake a large-scale restocking. They wait to see how the market would develop,” a buyer source based in Northern Europe told Fastmarkets.
Buyers’ estimations for the workable market level were at €590-600 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €598.75 per tonne on Monday, down by just €0.42 per tonne from €599.17 per tonne on Friday February 7.
The Northern European index was up by €7.50 per tonne week on week and by €33.33 per tonne month on month.
Meanwhile, in Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ corresponding daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy was €592.50 per tonne on Monday, unchanged from the previous calculation on Friday.
The index was up by €5.00 per tonne week on week and by €30.00 per tonne month on month.
The latest offers of April-delivery HRC in Italy were heard at €600-610 per tonne delivered, which would net back to €590-600 per tonne ex-works.
Buyers estimated the workable market level at €580-600 per tonne ex-works on Monday.
However, no major deals with HRC were heard in the Italian market.
Italian customers were well-stocked and were not in a hurry to buy new material, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
The market of imported HRC was also quiet on Monday due to trade risks related to the current steel safeguard review, which was expected to be over by the end of March.
Taiwan and Indonesia were heard offering March-shipment HRC at €560-570 per tonne CFR to Italy. Offers from South Korea were reported at €580 per tonne CFR.
HRC from Turkey was on offer to Italy at €590 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
