Offers at €680-700 ($768-791) per tonne ex-works for June-July rolling HRC from Northern European mills were not accepted by buyers, sources said.
“We noticed there is no support from buyers for these levels [€680-700 per tonne ex-works],” a buyer in the Netherlands said.
Tradeable values were estimated by buyers at no higher than €640-660 per tonne ex-works, with the majority of the price points reported at €640-650 per tonne ex-works.
Italy-origin coil was offered to Germany at €650-660 per tonne delivered with transactions reported within that range in the week to Friday.
Source also reported that a re-roller in Northern Europe was selling HRC at €640-650 per tonne ex-works.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe was €655 per tonne on Friday, unchanged from Thursday.
The index was up by €2.50 per tonne week on week and up by €3.96 per tonne month on month.
Overall, trading was quiet both due to holiday period across Europe and buyers’ cautious attitude in an uncertain market.
“There is lack of strengthening in steel demand across Europe, so HRC is losing momentum – asked prices from the mills are not reflecting the reality,” a buyer in Germany said.
Market participants were waiting for Made in Steel trade fair in Milan on May 6-8 to get greater clarity regarding the direction of prices, according to sources.
Meanwhile, in Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €623.13 per tonne on Friday, unchanged since Wednesday.
The index was down by €4.37 per tonne week on week and down by €1.87 per tonne month on month.
The Italian market was also quiet on Thursday and Friday due to a public holiday in the country on Thursday.
The most recent offers varied within the range of €620-640 per tonne ex-works, while tradeable values were said to be €610-630 per tonne ex-works. But some bids were at heard as low as €600 per tonne ex-works.
“End-user demand remains sluggish [and] downstream prices are weak, so buyers hold back,” a third buyer source said.
Meanwhile, sources reported lower import offers from some origins toward the end of the week.
Notably, June-shipment HRC offers from Malaysia were reported at €500 per tonne CFR to Italy.
From Indonesia, offers were heard at €520-530 per tonne CFR to Italy, with one supplier from the nation heard accepting even lower prices – €500 per tonne CFR.
June-shipment HRC from one Turkish mill was heard booked at €550-570 per tonne CFR to Italy and Spain during the week, including the EU anti-dumping duty.
And one source reported HRC offers from China at $580-610 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty. This, however, could not be widely confirmed before the publication deadline.
