Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil moved down across Europe on Wednesday June 30, but market participants were in disagreement over whether the decline indicated a change of trend.
Buyers have been holding back from purchasing bigger tonnages of HRC, preferring to book lots of less than 500 tonnes if they needed to re-stock or when doing back-to-back business.
In addition, buyers believed that a softening of international prices, particularly in China, was likely to result in a decline in prices in Europe, so they preferred to limit their purchases. Full credit lines due to high steel prices, and long lead times, also restricted purchasing power among European distributors.
Producers, in the meantime, had full order books and have been reluctant to give significant discounts. Some producers believed that prices would become more volatile in the short run and that the recent price decline would not result in a negative trend.
Steelmakers across Europe have been offering HRC from fourth-quarter rolling.
"Buyers and mills have drastically different views of the market," a European producer said.
"Buyers refer to the...