While domestic prices for cold rolled (CRC) and hot dip galvanized coils (HDG) in Europe have increased officially from mills over the past two weeks following some recovery seen in the hot rolled coil (HRC) segment, the tradable prices have remained relatively stable given that demand from end-users has continued at low levels, providing very limited support for European suppliers. At the same time, the CRC market in the EU has remained dominated by imports due to the price gap between local and import materials exceeding €50/mt.
More specifically, in the domestic CRC market, European mills have been giving higher offers at €750-760/mt ex-works for June delivery in Italy, up by €10/mt on the higher end of the range over the past two weeks and at €750-770/mt ex-works for June delivery in the north, versus €750-760/mt ex-works two weeks ago. However, tradable prices have remained at around €740/mt ex-works in Italy, while some bids are still voiced at lower levels or at around €720/mt ex-works, according to sources. Besides, workable prices in northern Europe have settled at €740-750/mt ex-works, the same as two weeks ago.
In the import segment, most offers for CRC have remained stable or showed only a slight upward bias in some offers. In particular, offers for ex-Taiwan CRC have been voiced at €685-690/mt CFR, against €685/mt CFR two weeks ago, while offers for ex-India CRC have settled at around $740/mt CFR, which translates to €687/mt CFR, up by €2-3/mt over the past two weeks. Suppliers from South Korea have been offering their CRC at around €695/mt CFR, up by €5/mt on the lower end of the range, though several deals for ex-South Korea CRC have been reported at €685-690/mt CFR during the past seven days. Furthermore, offers for ex-Japan CRC have settled at €695/mt CFR, while suppliers from Turkey have increased their offers to $760/mt CFR or around €705/mt CFR.
In the meantime, in the HDG segment, the pressure coming from imports has been weaker as compared to CRC, with domestic HDG offers from mills reaching €770-790/mt CFR in the north and €760-770/mt ex-works in Italy, up by around €10/mt over the past two weeks. However, domestic workable prices in the region have remained stable at €750-760/mt ex-works both in Italy and in the north.
Import HDG prices for ex-Vietnam Z140 materials have settled at around €780-800/mt CFR, while offers for ex-India Z120 HDG have been voiced at €760-785/mt CFR southern Europe. Offers from Taiwan have been heard at €790/mt CFR, while offers for ex-Turkey HDG have been estimated at $865/mt CFR or around €803/mt CFR.
$1 = €0.93