There were no easy solutions to this mix of influences, and delegates at the conference – held in Paris, France, on September 15-17 – remained pessimistic for both the short and middle terms.
Prices remained broadly stable in the steel long markets in the week to Wednesday September 18, Fastmarkets heard.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €630-645 ($701-718) per tonne on September 18, widening downward week on week by €5 per tonne from €635-645 per tonne.
Market participants remained pessimistic about future demand trends.
“The construction sector across Germany and Northern Europe is at crisis point,” a trader source told Fastmarkets at the conference.
“There is huge demand for housing but a chronic lack of new projects being developed and completed. Developers face enormous uncertainty regarding regulation and taxation, and the rent they can charge is capped so they don’t want to take the risk,” he added.
“This year, there are 25-30% fewer applications [for projects]. But we are facing huge increases in demand for housing due to immigrant inflows and more single-person occupancies,” the source said.
High interest rates increased the cost of borrowing to build new housing, and high energy costs further intensified the issues that prevented new projects being started.
But scrap raw materials prices remained stable week on week on September 18.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of its daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was $365.19 per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged since September 10.
Despite continuing discussions regarding imports of rebar, there was minimal demand for these due to low consumption and the comparable prices that domestic mills were offering.
“We have seen some very small tonnages [of rebar] from China and Algeria, but this has dried up due to depressed demand and weak domestic prices,” a second buyer source told Fastmarkets.
The weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (mesh quality), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €605-630 per tonne, also stable week on week.
Offer prices were steady in the wire rod market, Fastmarkets heard.
“Prices are unchanged from last week,” a producer source said, “but next week the market could start offering new October prices.”
Published by: India-Inés Levy
