Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at €628.75 ($674.79) per tonne on Wednesday, stable day on day.
The index was down by €0.63 per tonne week on week and by €4.58 per tonne month on month.
“Nothing is happening in the market,” a buyer in Germany told Fastmarkets. “Some German federal states will be starting holidays [from July 8], so consumption is slow and any effects from the new safeguards are likely be delayed.”
Buyer sources estimated the tradable value for HRC at about €610-630 per tonne ex-works – although not all considered the lower end of the range to be workable.
Despite the lack of trades, buyers and sellers all agree that HRC prices have probably reached a bottom, but the usual September rebound is still open to question.
“There are no signs of a demand rebound, but mills are selling close to the cost line. sp there will probably be a price rise announced for September-delivery HRC,” a second buyer in Germany said.
In Southern Europe, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Italy, at €621.04 per tonne on Wednesday, up by only €1.04 per tonne from €620.00 per tonne the day before.
The index was down by €3.96 per tonne week on week and by €8.34 per tonne month on month.
The Italian market was said to be almost totally quiet, with no trading of significance reported and one local integrated mill out of the market since last week.
The latest deals were heard done at €630 per tonne delivered – equivalent to €615-620 per tonne ex-works – in late June. For September deliveries, new offers have yet to be issued, but market participants expect to see attempts to raise prices, despite there being no room for an increase.
“A cost-driven price increase is always hard to push through,” a buyer in Italy told Fastmarkets.
The HRC import market in Europe was understandably quiet just a few days after the start of the new EU import quotas, sources told Fastmarkets.
The allocation for “other countries” HRC quotas have not yet been updated, but market participants said it was likely to be quickly exceeded, with an estimated duty rate around 10%.
Because of the 15% cap per country in the “other countries” quota initially available in each quarter, introduced for HRC from July 1, they added that they also expect Europe to see a reduction in import volumes of around 1.0-1.5 million tonnes under that category.
Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and Egypt have previously been the principal suppliers of HRC to the EU under the “other countries” category, with Asian suppliers offering the most competitive prices, according to market participants in Europe. No new import offers were reported on Wednesday, however.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
