Steel hollow sections market in Europe quiet ahead of Easter holiday

Prices for steel hollow sections in Europe were stable in the week to Wednesday April 5, and the market was quiet amid weak end-user demand and due to the upcoming Easter holiday.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel sections (medium) domestic, delivered Northern Europe was €970-1,000 ($1,061-1,093) per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged from March 29.

Fastmarkets’ corresponding weekly price assessment for steel sections (medium) domestic, delivered Southern Europe was €970-1,000 per tonne on Wednesday, also unchanged week on week.

A trader in Southern Europe said there were no significant price movements in past seven days, with market activity particularly sluggish in the run up to the long Easter weekend.

“Market players are not active before the holiday,” a producer source said. “Demand is not so high.”

Fastmarkets also heard high inventories continued to weigh on sections prices.

Sections prices in Poland and Romania remained stable in the week, a second producer source told Fastmarkets, with Polish mills targeting €900 per tonne CPT on a theoretical weight basis.

Prices for sections in Romania were heard at €820 per tonne CPT levels, also on a theoretical weight basis.

In Turkey, a sections price maker in southeastern Europe, prices were heard at $930-950 per tonne, decreasing from $950-980 per tonne last week.

But costs for the product’s feedstock, hot-rolled coil, increased, with the market quiet ahead of the approaching holiday.

HRC traders expect supply to tighten over the coming months following fire incidents at ArcelorMittal steelmaking facilities which could support future sections price rises, sources said.

But market participants were skeptical of any upward movement in the market due to current weak end-user demand and uncertainty over future construction consumption.

Fastmarkets’ daily calculation of its steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe was €859.38 per tonne on Wednesday, up by €15.63 per tonne from €843.75 per tonne on March 29.

Published by: Holly Chant