Italian plate market stagnates

Italian heavy plate prices are currently stagnating, due to weak demand and a sluggish beginning to the year, sources tell Kallanish.

Transactions are occurring for smaller volumes, while larger clients have yet to resume their buying activities. Both the mill and distributors agree that activity is lacklustre in January.

A mill source suggests that when evaluating 2024, there was a notable slowdown in the second half. However, the results for the full year remain satisfactory as the company has not incurred any losses.

Currently, contracts for the Italian domestic market show a level of stability when compared to the end of the previous month. S275 grade transactions are currently taking place within the range of €630-640/t ex-works, with S355 trading at a premium of €20/t above that range.

Mills are attempting to uphold the price point of €650/t ex-works for S275.Booking prices for Asian-origin slab are approximately $530-540/t cfr.

The primary challenge for domestic plate producers remains the availability of Asian material at competitive prices. Monthly imports of plates from Asia into Europe have remained stable at approximately 180,000t/month last year.

A mill source indicates that domestic demand is being met by Asian producers who have established an efficient distribution network in Europe, facilitating the sale of vessels containing both small and large orders of material.

Asian producers have effectively shifted the quotas they lost on coils to plates, subsequently boosting their plate exports to Europe at competitive pricing, according to the source.

“We are unable to compete with their low pricing structure. Our processing costs are at a minimum three times greater than those of Asian steelmakers” he states and anticipates that developments will occur this year, as the European Union is expected to announce a safeguard review by the conclusion of the first quarter.

Natalia Capra France

kallanish.com

Italian steel plate prices slightly firmer, but demand limited

Steel heavy plate prices in Italy were slightly stronger in the week to Wednesday January 15, with producers insisting on higher offers in a face of high input costs, despite demand remaining, sources told Fastmarkets.

But the Italian market was still quiet and trading limited.

Italian plate producers were maintaining their offer prices for new rolling at €650 ($667) per tonne ex-works and even higher in some cases.

Buyers, meanwhile, estimated the tradable level at €630-640 per tonne ex-works.

Very few transactions were reported within that range during the assessment week to Wednesday.

One supplier claimed to have sold a minor tonnage at €650 per tonne ex-works, but a producer source told Fastmarkets that sales below €640-650 were not possible due to costs.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate, 8-40 mm, exw Southern Europe was €630-650 per tonne on Wednesday, widening up from €630-640 per tonne seven days earlier.

Some suppliers said that a second round of increases, to around €670-680 per tonne ex-works, would be needed because of the current high costs of production – including the cost of steel slab and electricity.

However, buyers were skeptical about any potential price rise.

“There is not enough demand to support [a price rise]. Even €650 [per tonne ex-works] is still hard to get,” a buyer source said.

The Italian market for imported steel plate was also quiet, Fastmarkets understands.

“Import prices are too high. Plus safeguards are currently under review, so there’s a potential risk of stricter measures as of April,” a second buyer said.

“The European market is at a standstill and shipments from Asia are [only likely to] start in end February-early March at the earliest, means arrival in April-May, which would be too risky,” the buyer added.

Steel plate from South Korea and Indonesia, meanwhile, was on offer to Italy at €570-580 per tonne CFR in the week to Wednesday, sources said.

Published by: Julia Bolotova

Italian plate market enters quiet period with cautious hopes for price recovery in Q1

Italian steel heavy plate prices have been stable to slightly stronger in the week to Wednesday December 18, with hopes for a rebound in the first quarter of 2025 tempered by slow demand, sources told Fastmarkets.

In Italy, trading picked up slightly in the past week, with buyers finalizing their bookings for the first quarter ahead of the year-end.

But trading was slow in general, and producer sources said they were getting 20-40% fewer orders in November-December compared with the same period last year.

As Fastmarkets reported earlier, Italian plate producers were trying to increase prices for new rolling and were targeting offers of €650 ($682) per tonne ex-works for the first quarter.

Some suppliers said they have had limited success, managing to seal higher prices in bookings with some clients.

But another supplier said that higher prices could have been sealed mainly for project business, while the spot market remained weak.

“For small- and medium-sized businesses, there is a struggle; there is fierce competition downstream. We will see if distributors and steel service centers manage to [increase] prices downstream in the new year,” a supplier source said.

Most buyer sources estimated tradeable prices at no higher than €630 per tonne ex-works in the week to Wednesday, claiming that some suppliers were still accepting lower prices to fill gaps in order books, particularly for commodity grades.

Deals were reported at €630-640 per tonne ex-works during the assessment week.

As a result. Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate, 8-40mm, exw Southern Europe was €630-640 per tonne on Wednesday, narrowing upward by €10 per tonne from €620-640 per tonne on December 11.

Domestic suppliers were taking prolonged production stoppages in December and January, and industry sources expressed hopes that the move might help to balance the market so the Italian rerollers would be able to achieve higher prices in new-year trades.

The recent news about the safeguards review, announced by the European Commission on Tuesday December 17, also sparked some cautious optimism among sellers.

No details have been revealed yet about the potential changes to steel safeguard measures, but sources familiar with the matter said that quarterly quotas for some origins will likely be reduced and/or new individual quotas might be imposed.

Sources suggested that the Commission’s move will further limit appetite for overseas bookings and therefore support a rebound in European prices in the medium to long run.

“We are heading into [an] era of global trade wars and growing protectionism. Looks like reliance on domestic mills will only increase in 2025,” a buyer in Italy said.

Sources said that interest in overseas plate has already been somewhat cooled by talks about a potential anti-dumping investigation, and the recent safeguard news announcement might result in stronger reliance on European plate.

Some suppliers — notably South Korea, Indonesia and India — have significantly increased heavy plate shipments to the EU in 2023-2024.

Notably, in January-October 2024, total quarto plate deliveries from South Korea to the EU amounted to 640,513 tonnes, compared with 618,070 for the entire year of 2023, Global Trader Tracker (GTT) data showed. In 2022, South Korea shipped only 357,504 tonnes of plate to the bloc.

In the first ten months of 2024, India supplied 439,415 tonnes of quarto plate to the bloc, compared with 349,901 tonnes for the entire year of 2023.

In January-October 2024, quarto plate deliveries from Indonesia to the EU stood at 302,109 tonnes, compared with 328,894 for the entire year of 2023.

Offers of February-shipment plate to Italy from South Korea and Indonesia were heard at €570-580 per tonne CFR.

Published by: Julia Bolotova

Dillinger, Sif team up to make monopiles fully circular low carbon

German steel producer Dillinger has signed an addendum to an existing deal with design engineering company Sif to supply its lower-emission heavy-plate steel for offshore wind foundations, the companies said May 16.

By signing the “green steel” addendum to the plate supply framework agreement, Dillinger and Sif said they have detailed the transition to supplying low carbon steel plates for Sif’s new and enhanced XXXL monopile factory, with the deal aiming to achieve full circularity of the monopiles.

“This agreement is key to decarbonizing materials such as steel. With this addendum and the MoU between Sif Decom and Dillinger, the partners support development of lower-emission steel manufacturing and circularity of materials used in offshore wind foundations,” Sif CEO Fred van Beers said.

“We are very proud of this future-focused collaboration with Sif,” Dillinger chair Stefan Rauber said. “Our steel plates from Dillinger, which in future will be produced with reduced CO2 emissions, are the basis for monopiles and wind farms where renewable energies are generated.”

Starting in 2027/2028, SHS and its subsidiaries Dillinger, Saarstahl and ROGESA plan to produce up to 3.5 million mt/year CO2-reduced steel under the PURE STEEL+ brand. By 2045, the entire production volume of the company’s crude steel is set to be carbon-neutral.

Many companies in different industries across the steel value chain are buying increasing volumes of low-carbon “green” steel to reduce their scope 2 and 3 emissions, closing offtake supply agreements to secure low-carbon raw materials.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, launched its carbon-accounted price assessments in May 2023, following the market trend of strengthening lower-carbon steel demand.

Platts assessed Northwest European hot-rolled carbon-accounted coil stable on the day at Eur765/mt ($832/mt) ex-works Ruhr on May 15.

The assessment was calculated in line with the sum of Platts daily carbon-accounted steel premium (CASP) assessment and Platts daily hot-rolled coil price assessment in Northwest Europe.

Annalisa Villa

spglobal.com