Despite weak demand, mills have raised and then maintained offer prices since their summer reopening, sources said.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe was €635-645 ($700-711) per tonne on Wednesday, up by €10-15 per tonne from €620-635 per tonne week on week.
Customers were only reported to be restocking minimal tonnage with short lead times.
Mills were able to resist a price downtrend by offering higher prices for these small-volume trades, sources said.
Demand was reported to be extremely depressed, aside from a few small-tonnage trades.
The corresponding Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (mesh quality), domestic, delivered Northern Europe was €605-630 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €10-20 per tonne from €615-650 per tonne week on week.
Offer prices edged downward in the wire rod market amid weak demand, market uncertainty and depressed sentiment, sources said.
“The steel mills of Europe are coming from a long period of suffering due to low demand from the construction and automotive sectors combined with high costs of energy,” a wire rod producer source said.
Meanwhile, scrap prices edged upward week on week but were still under pressure from lower-priced billet offers from Asia, Fastmarkets reported.
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, up by $5.32 per tonne week on week but down by $8.49 per tonne month on month.
Published by: India-Inés Levy
