Domestic prices in Europe for hot-rolled coil (HRC) increased again this week and steelmakers have already made attempts to raise their offers further, sources told Metal Bulletin.
The upward trend settled in the EU coil market has been supported by a combination of low availability of domestic material in Italy and the effects of trade defense measures in the region.Sources of imported HRC have been limited since the European Commission (EC) settled definitive anti-dumping measures on material from China in April 2017, and on imports from Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Brazil in October of last year.Some market sources believe that any further domestic HRC price rise might result in the return to the EU market of overseas suppliers which were involved in those trade cases.Southern EuropeMetal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic HRC in Southern Europe went up to ?,?550-570 ($681-705) per...