Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was €750-800 ($817-872) per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged from a week earlier.
Similarly, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Southern Europe, was €750-800 per tonne on Wednesday, also unchanged from a week earlier.
Fastmarkets heard offers at €810 per tonne in the past seven days, but traders said that buyers would resist upward moves in the market due to slow consumption by the construction sector.
“Nobody at the end of the year is willing to pay a higher price because steel prices for end-users are still dropping,” one trader in Northern Europe said.
But HRC feedstock prices have risen considerably over the past month, and HRC traders said that the upward market move was “entirely cost-driven” and supported by reduced levels of suppliy.
They added that price rises may not be sustainable without increased end-user demand.
Fastmarkets’ daily calculation of its steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was €659.75 per tonne on Wednesday, up by €5.62 per tonne from €654.13 per tonne a week earlier, and up by €46.62 per tonne month on month.
Higher sections prices were heard in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, with market prices on a theoretical weight basis at €720 per tonne CPT in Romania and €750 per tonne CPT in Poland.
In early November, Fastmarkets heard that sections prices in Romania and Poland were in the range of €700-720 per tonne CPT, on a theoretical weight basis.
A producer source in Southeastern Europe said that demand in the region was stable, adding: “I think the [price] growth was possible due to HRC price growth.”
Published by: Holly Chant
