Some higher HRC offers emerge in northwest Europe

While opportunities to buy coil in Europe in the second half-year remain scarce, some offers seem to be in the offing, at slightly higher prices than the latest peak reached in June.

Two weeks ago, the market leader mill group came out with another price push for hot rolled coil to €1,200/tonne ($1,421). New offers now, apparently from other western European mills, are said to be at €1,240-1,250/t, Kallanish learns from one market player. These offers are not yet widely heard on the market, as most players keep bemoaning an absolute absence of any offers all, not even at June’s price.

The new offers come from mills “from Sweden to Italy”, the one source says without getting more precise. Some came in last week, and some are not even official yet, “and will be announced only next week once volumes are defined”, he says, pointing at wide differences between mills in their allocation planning.

In fact, while many mills reject any orders for this year, those new opportunities would be for delivery between October and December. Apparently, only HRC has a new price attached, while newly released volumes of cold-rolled and galv remain at June’s price target of €1,350.

Christian Koehl Germany