The European hot-rolled coil (HRC) market continues to experience sluggish trading activity as of May 29. While the majority of steelmakers have maintained stable offer prices, some mills are willing to provide discounts for coils with higher added value.
According to a service center source, "Transactional volumes are limited. The buyers are just filling the gaps in their stocks when absolutely needed." A mill source added, "European distributors have been avoiding booking larger volumes due to uncertainty about price trends and demand.
"Platts assessed domestic prices for HRC in Northwest Europe at €630/mt ex-works Ruhr on May 29, an increase of €5/mt. Deals for smaller lots have been reported at €630/mt ex-works Ruhr, with tradable values ranging from €630-640/mt ex-works Ruhr.Offers have been reported at €650-660/mt delivered in Germany, and for commodity grades, the price is equivalent to €630-640/mt ex-works Ruhr. However, a German mill has been offering HRC with higher added value, and consequently higher premiums, at the same delivered prices, effectively making it €615-620/mt ex-works Ruhr.
The market sentiment has been slightly better in Southern Europe compared to Germany due to reduced domestic supply caused by stoppages at Acciaierie d'Italia, according to sources.
Platts assessed domestic prices for HRC in Southern Europe as stable at €625/mt ex-works Italy on May 29. Offers have been heard at €635/mt ex-works Italy, while buyers' tradable values at €615-625/mt ex-works Italy were not accepted by mills.
Interest in imported material from Asia has been low due to long lead times. As one service center stated, "Offers from Asia are out of question due to long lead times — the material would be custom cleared in the fourth quarter, and we still do not know what would be the changes in the safeguard measures. European mills understand that the buyers will have to turn to them for volumes and avoid moving prices down.
"Offers of HRC from Egypt and Turkey, including antidumping duties, were at €610-615/mt CIF Italy.
