Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €645 ($695.47) per tonne on Friday, stable day on day.
The Northern European index was up by €4.62 per tonne week on week and by €18.17 per tonne month on month.
For June delivery, offers from first-tier suppliers in Germany and Benelux area were heard at €650-660 per tonne ex-works. One mills was aiming for €680 per tonne ex-works or delivered, depending on the region.
One supplier source in the region told Fastmarkets, that most major HRC suppliers have very little coil availability for second-quarter delivery, while for the third quarter, they were considering a new round of increases.
“Maybe we will see [HRC] prices with ‘seven’ in the front shortly,” a mill source told Fastmarkets.
Buyers were rather skeptical about new price rises, since they believed that demand was insufficient.
“There is no room for further [price] rises, end-user demand is not rising,” a buyer in Germany said.
At the same time, due to tougher safeguards, and certain supply issues at domestic mills, European buyers did not have that many options.
“If you need [HRC] — you have little choice. It’s either EU mills with around six weeks lead times or imports — which is too risky. So eventually if buyers need to buy coil, they have to pay higher prices,” a second buyer source said.
“Salzgitter has no HRC availability for [the second quarter] due to force majeure, ArcelorMittal stopped [its blast furnace] in Dunkirk. Supply issues are starting to be felt in the market these days,” a third buyer said.
Other buyers said that supply constrains were not big for the EU market, considering continued moderate end-user demand. Moreover, sources worried that in the longer run, demand from the key end-user sector — automotive — will deteriorate further amid 25% tariffs on imported cars, introduced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday March 26.
US is the second-largest market for the EU vehicle exports after the UK. In terms of value, the US accounts for about one-fifth of the EU export market, according to European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). In 2024, 757,654 new vehicles were exported from the EU to the US, worth €38.9 billion.
Meanwhile, In Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €625 per tonne on Friday, stable day on day.
The index was up by €2.50 per tonne week on week and by €12.50 per tonne month on month.
The Italian market was quiet, digesting news about a steel safeguards review and the anti-dumping probe.
Offers for June-delivery HRC from two major Italian suppliers were reported at €630-650 per tonne delivered (€620-640 per tonne ex-works). However, some buyer sources said that one mill could still offer late-May delivery.
Transactions were done during the week at €630-640 per tonne delivered (€620-630 per tonne ex-works), sources said.
Buying has picked up recently, but traded volumes were still limited, Fastmarkets heard.
As for imports, there have been fewer offers recently because of the safeguards review and an anti-dumping probe.
Notably, sources reported offers for May-shipment HRC offers from Indonesia at €540-550 per tonne CFR.
From India, HRC offers were reported at €570-580 per tonne CFR.
From Turkey, offers were heard at €590-600 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty. Sales at lower end of the range were reported earlier this week.
