Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €630.00 ($675.51) per tonne on Friday, down by €0.21 per tonne from €630.21 per tonne on Thursday June 20.
The index was down by €5.00 per tonne week on week and by €8.75 per tonne month on month.
Transactions for small lots of HRC were heard done at €630 per tonne ex-works in Germany and the Benelux area.
Offer prices from integrated mills in the region varied in the range of €630-645 per tonne ex-works for August-delivery HRC.
There was market chatter about transactions done at €600 per tonne ex-works for July-delivery HRC from one European supplier, who withdrew from the market after that. But this price was not widely available for the spot market, sources said.
Trading was persistently slow in the region amid limited end-user demand and excessive supply, sources said.
“All stockholders and steel service centers have sufficient stock for the current levels of demand and tend to maintain those levels medium to low, so European mills fight for orders,” a steel service center source in Germany said.
Fastmarkets calculated its corresponding daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy at €628.75 per tonne on Friday, unchanged from Thursday.
The index was down by €3.13 per tonne week on week and by €5.00 per tonne month on month.
August-delivery HRC from a local mill was heard offered at €640-650 per tonne delivered (€630-640 per tonne ex-works), and several sources said that some July-delivery volumes were still available.
Buyer estimates of tradable prices were around €610-630 per tonne ex-works.
In the secondary market, 3-6mm HR sheet was still heard traded in the range of €710-730 per tonne CPT, fairly stable over the past seven days.
The market for overseas coil remained quiet, with most buyers holding back due to either looming risks related to new EU import safeguards or uncompetitive prices for import HRC.
Several sources in Italy reported HRC offers from Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia for August-shipment coil at €600-625 per tonne CFR.
Indian mills were reportedly staying out of the market.
Turkish mills reportedly increased offers by €30 per tonne to around €640 per tonne CFR, including the EU anti-dumping duty, before stepping away for the Eid-al-Adha holiday on June 16-21.
Even though Turkey was said to be the only “safe origin” to import from due to a sufficient quota, the offered price was “too close to the European mills’ to be workable,” sources said.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
