Trading activity remains limited in European HRC market, prices mainly flat

European hot-rolled coil buyers continued to delay purchases amid a lack of clarity in the market and downbeat expectations for the rest of the year, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday November 9.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel HRC index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €647.98 ($649.85) per tonne on November 9, down by €2.02 per tonne from €650 per tonne the previous day.

The latest calculation of the index was down by €1.06 per tonne week on week and down by €87.02 per tonne month on month.

Official offers from mills were rare since mills preferred to take a case-by-case approach.

Some integrated mills, however, indicated offer prices at €670-680 per tonne EXW for HRC with fourth-quarter delivery and a minimum of €700 per tonne EXW for first-quarter delivery coil.

Buyers, meanwhile, gave lower estimates – between €620 and €650 per tonne EXW.

Trading activity remained quiet in the region, with only small lots reportedly being traded.

No demand recovery is expected this year, given that buyers still had high inventories and were focused on reducing stock levels ahead of the year-end, market participants said.

“There won’t be any restocking activity until mid-first-quarter 2023 in the best-case scenario,” a distributor told Fastmarkets.

Fastmarkets’ calculation of its daily steel HRC index domestic, exw Italy was €655.63 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €5.75 per tonne from €661.38 per tonne on Tuesday.

The latest calculation of the Italian index was up by €0.63 per tonne week on week, but down by €74.37 per tonne month on month.

Official offer prices from integrated mills and rerollers in the nation were reported in quite a wide range: between €650 and €700 per tonne EXW.

But mills were reportedly prepared to cut prices on deals given that they were short of orders and needed to fill gaps in order books.

Bids from steel-service centers, tube makers and distributors were lower, at €620-640 per tonne EXW.

Import HRC offers to Italy from Southeast Asia with January shipment were reported at €600-620 per tonne CFR.

Italy’s buyers, however, estimated the tradeable level for overseas coil to be below €600 per tonne CFR, considering long lead times, safeguard-related risks and the persistent downtrend in the domestic markets