With the summer break coming to an end, northwestern European market observers still do not see any prospect for plate prices to rebound.
“I cannot see any chance for the mills to obtain higher prices, although I would not be surprised if they tried,” a manager at a German distribution group tells Kallanish. One other buyer claims there have been recent attempts, “but to no effect”.
“There is nothing that would justify and support an increase, the demand is just too limited,” a representative of a mill group says. He notes that customers keep pressuring prices down, while costs are simultaneously increasing.
Some offers during the summer for S355 grade plate from domestic mills went down to €730/tonne ($808) delivered Ruhr, but the representative notes his offers would still be above that. One trader confirms such levels, but notes that “the market is dead”, and there is too little transaction activity to identify a representative price at all.
A buyer in northern Germany sees the domestic price range stretching up to €770+, which he says is also the price level of imports from Asia delivered to northern Germany. “For some projects, and there are not many, prices can be lower,” he notes. “I do not see an increase happening this year any more.”
The distribution group manager points at hike attempts made in Italy one month ago, “but that did not seem to be successful”, he concludes.
Christian Koehl Germany