Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel beams, domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €730-760 ($865-900) per tonne on Wednesday, falling by €20 per tonne from €750-780 per tonne a month earlier.
Similarly, Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel beams, domestic, delivered Southern Europe, was €730-760 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €20 per tonne month on month from €750-780 per tonne.
Producers have been targeting higher market prices, trade sources said, but there was scepticism around the achievability of higher offers amid such weak demand.
Poor end-user consumption in the region’s construction sector has continued to weigh on appetite for bookings, and regulatory uncertainty was contributing to a cautious market mood, sources told Fastmarkets.
And, according to European steel industry association Eurofer, the outlook will remain bleak, with apparent demand expected to decline by 0.2% to 128 million tonnes this year.
Still, the association’s forecast was a little less pessimistic than previous expectations of a 0.9% decline in apparent consumption, voiced in June.
While Eurofer forecast a modest output increase in construction activity this year overall, significant growth in that sector was projected to return only in 2026.
Meanwhile, scrap prices in Turkey’s bellwether market fell in the month.
Fastmarkets’ calculation of its daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was $329.10 per tonne on Wednesday, down by $11.56 per tonne compared with $340.66 per tonne on August 15.
