Business continued to be sluggish in European HRC market on Friday July 11, amid seasonally weak demand and despite prices edging higher, there is a widespread expectation that prices will fall, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets’ calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €546.25 ($639.87) per tonne on Friday, up by just €1.77 per tonne from €544.58 per tonne on July 10.
Official offers from mills in the region were heard at €560-570 per tonne ex-works, but buyers said that level was unrealistic and estimated the workable price at closer to €530-550 per tonne ex-works.
A stockist told Fastmarkets that fellow suppliers were keeping their stocks low and had no intention of replenishing them significantly given the generally low demand in the region and the uncertainty over the future direction of prices after the seasonal slowdown.
The stockist said restocking will be minimal after the summer break, which, in the best-case scenario, would help to keep prices stable.
In Italy one of the key producers was heard targeting €540 per tonne ex-works for HRC, while buyer price ideas were closer to €510-530 per tonne ex-works, depending on tonnage, with no major deals reported to Fastmarkets on Friday.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €525.83 per tonne on Friday, up from €520.42 per tonne on Thursday.
