Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at €590.00 ($652.69) per tonne on Tuesday, unchanged from Monday.
The Northern Europe index was down by €7.50 per tonne week on week and by €30.50 per tonne month on month.
Activity in the region remains very slow, sources said, with distributors and steel service centers having no need to restock due to continuing weak end-user demand.
“We might need to replenish inventories in about five or six weeks,” a steel service center source in Germany told Fastmarkets. “Lead times are short [and the] mills need to sell.”
HRC for October delivery was widely available from European suppliers, Fastmarkets understands.
In Germany, offers were reported at €590-600 per tonne ex-works, while in the Benelux area offers came in at €600-620 per tonne ex-works.
Sources told Fastmarkets that lower prices — €580 per tonne ex-works — could be achieved for volumes over 200 tonnes.
One Benelux-based mill was said to be offering HRC at €570 per tonne ex-works.
Sources said that the market was oversupplied and there were no signs of a recovery in demand from any end-user sectors.
“A recovery in demand can only happen when the economy picks up. It is to be hoped that, because of falling inflation, the [European Central Bank] will drop its interest rates — just as the US Federal Reserve has announced for September,” a trading source in the Netherlands told Fastmarkets.
Even though industry sources continued to stress that steel production cuts could help mills to stop the downtrend in an oversupplied market, no such announcements were heard from European steelmakers.
In Southern Europe, meanwhile, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy was €590.00 per tonne on Tuesday, unchanged day on day.
The index was down by €5.00 per tonne week on week and by €30.63 per tonne month on month.
No firm offers have been reported by Italian mills so far this week, while buyers’ estimates of the tradable level remained at €590 per tonne CPT (€580 per tonne ex-works) and €600 per tonne CPT (€590 per tonne ex-works) for smaller tonnages.
The recent restrictions on imports of flat steel — including a safeguarding review and an anti-dumping investigation into HRC from Egypt, India, Japan and Vietnam — have had little impact on interest in booking overseas coil in Europe, Fastmarkets understands.
In addition, most overseas suppliers are already offering late-October shipment materials, which would mean January arrival.
Sources reported offers from India at $620 per tonne CFR to Italy, while offers of Chinese HRC were heard at €540-550 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
