Trading was subdued amid continued holidays across Europe, sources added.
Nonetheless, in Northern Europe, mills were heard to be targeting higher prices for June- and July-delivery coil, with offers reported at €680-700 ($775-797) per tonne ex-works.
One integrated mill in the Benelux area was said to be “heavily overbooked” for the second quarter, with lead times stretching. Offers from suppliers were in the range of €690-700 per tonne ex-works, according to sources.
A re-roller in the region was offering coil at lower prices – €650 per tonne ex-works.
Buyers’ estimations of tradeable levels were still in the range of €640-660 per tonne ex-works.
“Demand is slow – everyone’s on holiday, so basically there is no movement in the market,” a buyer in the Netherlands said.
As a result, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €654 per tonne on Wednesday, down slightly from the previous calculation of €654.74 per tonne on Tuesday.
The Northern European index was up by €2 per tonne week on week and up by €9 per tonne month on month.
While mill sources were pushing for higher prices, citing good order books and limited imports due to trade measures, buyers claimed real demand was not strong enough to allow for any further upticks.
Market participants said they hope to get greater clarity regarding the direction of prices after the Made in Steel trade fair in Milan on May 6-8.
Meanwhile, in Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €623.13 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €4.37 per tonne from €627.50 per tonne on Tuesday.
The index was down by €2.29 per tonne week on week and down by €1.87 per tonne month on month.
Holidays further limited already-weak demand in Italy, sources told Fastmarkets.
One integrated mill in Italy was heard offering at €640-650 per tonne delivered, which would net back to €630-640 per tonne ex-works.
Another supplier was heard selling June-delivery HRC at €610-620 per tonne ex-works.
Sources estimated tradeable values at €610-630 per tonne ex-works on Wednesday.
Some bids were reported as low as €600 per tonne ex-works.
“There has been a quiet holiday period with limited demand for nearly three weeks. Now there will be pressure on mills to drop prices,” a source in Italy said.
Meanwhile, the gap between imports and domestic is widening, but it has not spurred buying interest for overseas coil much so far since buyers remained cautious about quota availability and anti-dumping duties.
The lowest offers were reported from Indonesia and Malaysia at €520-540 per tonne CFR to Italy.
From India, offers were reported at €565-580 per tonne CFR for June shipment, depending on the supplier.
June-shipment HRC from one Turkish mill was on offer at €550-570 per tonne CFR to Italy, including the EU anti-dumping duty.
