Major EU mills hold back HRC offers, import prices down

Major Europe-based steelmakers remained inactive in the domestic hot-rolled coil market on April 17 due to full orderbooks and effects from technical issues at some plants.

Despite limited domestic supply, Europe-based buyers’ moods remained largely negative due to uncertain demand outlook and lower import offers.

The number of available European offers in the market was scarce due to effects from technical issues at some mills, including fires at two blast furnaces at plants owned by ArcelorMittal in Spain and France, as well as scheduled maintenance at some mills, including Tata Steel in the Netherlands and ArcelorMittal in Poland. Other mills had good orderbooks, and some have been planning maintenance in the third quarter, according to market sources.

Three market sources said that ArcelorMittal was not planning to offer coil until the end of April.
“ArcelorMittal is out of the market until end of April,” a Northwest Europe-based service center said. “They say to be fully booked for the second quarter”.

Market participants named rising demand from automotive industry as a factor supporting domestic prices. Some sources, however, believed that increased activity from bigger buyers, including carmakers, was mainly a result of the buyers looking for volumes to substitute orders they made with mills that faced production disruptions.

Platts assessed domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northwest Europe at Eur840/mt ex-works Ruhr on April 17, unchanged on the day. The assessment was based on tradable values estimated by market sources at Eur830-Eur850/mt ex-works Ruhr.

In South Europe, Platts assessed domestic hot-rolled coil prices at Eur840/mt ex-works Italy, also stable day on day. The assessment reflected achievable prices heard at Eur840-Eur850/mt ex-works Italy.

Import offers moved down further following a bearish trend in Asia.

Offers of HRC from Asia were heard at Eur660-Eur700/mt CIF Italy, falling around Eur20/mt from previous offers.

Platts is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Author Maria Tanatar, maria.tanatar@spglobal.com