Slow demand will remain as the main challenge for European hot-rolled coil producers and will keep adding pressure to domestic coil prices in the third quarter of 2019, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.
Slow demand will remain as the main challenge for European hot-rolled coil producers and will keep adding pressure to domestic coil prices in the third quarter of 2019, market sources told Fastmarkets this week. As a result, domestic prices are likely to remain largely stable in July but could fall later under pressure from generally poor demand along with the added pressure of the seasonal slowdown in August. "Prices will be fluctuating this month [but] with no significant change. Overall demand is weak and it will fall further, which means that domestic HRC prices are likely [to] drop," a European mill source said. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for domestic HRC in Northern Europe was ?,?480-495 ($552-564) per tonne ex-works on July 3, reflecting the transactions and "workable" prices heard in the market. Fastmarkets' price assessment for domestic HRC in Southern Europe was ?,?470-485 per tonne ex-works on July 3. Italian steelmakers were reportedly offering material at ?,?470-480...