The EU hot rolled roll (HRC) market has remained virtually unchanged in terms of business activity, with demand remaining at a moderate level with relatively high or medium inventory levels depending on the country and region.
While import offers for HRC, both on DDP and CFR terms, remained virtually unchanged over the week, trade in this segment remains modest, sources say. However, in some cases, acceptable domestic prices have decreased, especially in the southern part of the country. However, most market participants do not consider this to be a sharp drop, but the result of lower overall demand and the fact that some factories are forced to sell more than those that were already sold out in July. The issue of quota allocation remains a key factor affecting import demand, especially while theoretically Turkish and Algerian HRC still has some advantage due to lower estimated CBAM costs compared to Asian material.
In Northern Europe, the official offers of most factories for the supply of HRC in July are about 700 euros per ton from the plant, compared with earlier plans at 700-710 euros per ton from the plant. The levels available for trading were mostly set at 680-690 euros per tonne excluding production, as they were a week ago, although some sources reported small transactions at levels close to 700 euros per tonne excluding production.
In the Italian market, official factory offers for HRC were reported to be 680-690 euros per ton from the factory, which is lower than last week's target of 690-705 euros per ton from the factory. Reasonable prices for HRC in the southern part of the EU, according to sources, have been set at 670-685 euros per ton from the factory, although some traders report that in some cases it is possible to reach 665 euros per ton from the factory. "There are talks about offers in the amount of 680-690 euros per ton[from a large plant], and even this price is considered high at the moment," a SteelOrbis source said.
In the import segment, HRC offers from Algeria were reported at a price of 730 euros per ton per day, while Turkish materials were available this week at a price of 690 euros per ton per day, compared with offers discussed last week at a price of 675-685 euros per ton per day. In addition, according to sources, in the southern part of Europe, HRC, which previously operated in Vietnam, was offered at a price of 690-700 euros per ton per day. At the same time, HRC offers from South Korea were reported at a price of 700 euros per ton per day.
It was reported that Turkish plants offer imports of HRC at a price of 610-615 euros per ton CFR, and Algerian plants at a price of 645-650 euros per ton CFR. However, there should be more clarity next week regarding
