Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €536.99 ($599.29) per tonne on Tuesday, down by €4.68 per tonne from €541.67 on Monday September 30.
The index was down by €15.72 per tonne week on week and by €54.26 per tonne month on month.
Offer prices from integrated steelmakers in Germany were reported at €540-550 per tonne base delivered, which nets back to €525-540 per tonne ex-works.
One supplier in the Benelux area was heard offering HRC at €510 per tonne ex-works, but this information could not be widely confirmed at the time of publication.
Another Benelux-based mill was offering HRC at €560 per tonne ex-works.
Lead times for HRC in the region were said to remain at four to five weeks, or even shorter in some cases, which indicates weak order books at suppliers.
“The market is oversupplied, and the most obvious and logical way to balance [supply and demand] would have been production cuts. However, mills need to keep furnaces on to make sure they have their free carbon credits for the next year,” a buyer source in the region said.
Buyers’ estimations of tradeable values were €520-550 per tonne ex-works.
Even though those numbers were very close or even in line with actual offers, trading remained subdued.
Slow demand from end-user sectors, especially the automotive sector, and sufficient inventories kept buyers from restocking.
Sources suggested, however, that current HRC prices in Europe were already very close to rock bottom.
“Mills are in red — they are selling [HRC] close or below costs,” a buyer in Germany said.
In Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ corresponding daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was €533.00 per tonne on Tuesday, down by €6.00 per tonne from €539.00 per tonne on the previous day.
The Italian index was down by €19.50 per tonne week on week and by €58.25 per tonne month on month.
In Italy, one transaction was reported at €520 per tonne ex-works and another at €530 per tonne ex-wors for locally-produced coil.
This was below the official offers level from a domestic supplier — at €550 per tonne delivered. This would be equivalent to €535-540 per tonne ex-works, according to sources.
Lead times were four to five weeks, sources said.
The market for overseas coil was “dead,” according to sources, and limited import availability because of trade restrictions was expected to support domestic HRC prices in the longer term, Fastmarkets understands.
“After new safeguards [effective July 1], followed August 8 [when the EU opened an anti-dumping probe against HRC from India, Egypt, Japan and Vietnam] importing HRC became increasingly inconvenient,” a buyer in Europe said.
“We expect the pipeline for import [HRC] deliveries will be cleared before year end, and new deliveries [from imports] will be limited. It is already cheaper and faster to book HRC in Europe, so hopefully in the first quarter of 2025, we will see some positive effects [of trade restrictions],” the buyer added.
In the week to September 27, HRC offers to Italy from Asia were about €520-535 per tonne CFR for end-October/early November shipment, Fastmarkets heard.
Sources expected new offers to be announced when the Golden Week public holiday in China is over.
Just before the holiday, however, Chinese exporters increased offers for HRC after the introduction of a raft of stimulus measures from the Chinese government.
As a result, sources expect higher offers from Asia. They noted, however, that imports will most likely remain uncompetitive in Europe.
For example, buyers’ prices idea for imported HRC did not exceed €480-510 per tonne CFR, although no offers at that level have been heard.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
