Trading in the spot European HRC market was slow on Wednesday, with only sporadic bookings heard.
“Demand [for HRC] is very poor. Because of [continuing] holidays in France and because of the ‘cold’ market,” a buyer in Northern Europe said.
Buyers in Northern Europe estimated tradeable values for October-delivery HRC at €580-590 ($648-659) per tonne ex-works.
Firm offers were still rare, since suppliers preferred conduct business on a “case by case” basis, according to sources.
“Some suppliers still talk about price increases in September. But it doesn’t seem likely – the market is too weak for that,” a second buyer said.
Several sources reported offers for October-delivery HRC from a Benelux-based supplier at €600-620 per tonne ex-works, depending on the tonnage.
Another supplier in the region was said to be offering HRC with the same lead time at €570 per tonne ex-works.
Sources said that they only expected limited restocking in September.
“In fact, destocking is still taking place; in the downstream market, SCCs (steel service centers) are competing for volumes,” a source at a SSC in Germany said.
Sources added that a mill-owned SSC was selling hot-rolled sheet at aggressive prices, with transactions reported at €650 per tonne delivered and even €630 per tonne delivered in Germany.
As a result, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at €597 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €0.50 per tonne from the previous calculation of €597.50 per tonne on Tuesday.
The Northern Europe index is down by €10.00 per tonne week on week and by €31.67 per tonne month on month.
Fastmarkets’ corresponding daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy, was calculated at €595.00 per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged from a day earlier.
The index is down by €5.00 per tonne week on week, and by €25.00 per tonne month on month.
The Italian market was said to be “restarting slowly” after the traditional summer break.
A major local integrated supplier has yet to announce new offers for October-delivery HRC.
But two sources reported that one local mill was testing the market with an offer of €610-620 per tonne CPT (€600-610 per tonne ex-works).
Buyer sources in Italy estimated the current workable price to be around €580-600 per tonne ex-works.
One Europe mill was heard offering HRC to Italy at €590 per tonne delivered.
Import offers from Asia to Europe remained scarce amid safeguards-related risk and pending anti-dumping investigation against several origins, sources said.
Sources reported an offer from India for late October-shipment coil at $620 per tonne CFR.
An offer from South Korea was heard at €590 per tonne CFR – a price deemed unworkable by Italian buyers, since it is in line with what EU mills could offer.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
