The mood in the European market for steel hot-rolled coil remained pessimistic on Thursday June 19, with demand being limited and import offers continuing to exert pressure.
Official offers from mills in Northern Europe still came at €600-620 ($634-656) per tonne ex-works and somewhat below, while workable prices were estimated within the range of €580-600 per tonne ex-works.
Trading activity has been generally muted in recent days with Germany and Austria celebrating the religious holiday of Corpus Christi on June 19, which made the market particularly quiet that day.
Those few who were present in the market had bearish expectations.
“Mills in Northern Europe are struggling to find orders at €600 per tonne ex-works, so it is only a question of time until we see €580-585 per tonne ex-works in offers, but I doubt this will be the end of downward spiral,” one trader said.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was €590.00 ($675.93) per tonne on June 19, down by €3.33 per tonne from €593.33 per tonne on Wednesday.
In Italy, official HRC offers were heard at €570-580 per tonne ex-works, with €565-575 per tonne ex-works being negotiable, according to one seller, and bids coming in below €560 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, ex-works Italy, was calculated at €568.40 per tonne on Thursday, down from €571.88 per tonne on Wednesday.
In imports, Indonesian HRC was quoted at €470–480 per tonne CFR Italy.
Despite weak demand and market uncertainty, some market sources said that Indonesian HRC could be negotiated as low as €460-470 per tonne CFR.
Algerian coil was available at prices below €500 per tonne CFR Italy for July–August shipment. Vietnamese material offers came at €510 per tonne CFR, while Indian and Turkish offers were heard at €530-540 per tonne, with the Turkish price including duty.
Some market sources reported Turkish and Indian offers as low as €515 per tonne, duty paid and CFR respectively, but this could not be confirmed at the time of publication.
