Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC) in the EU have inched down over the past week due to slow trading, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 31.
Demand was expected to be almost nil in August due to the seasonal slowdown, and although the market will recover in September, sources believed that generally activity will remain poor.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HRC, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?465-480 ($518-535) per tonne on July 31, compared with ?,?470-485 per tonne a week earlier.The assessment reflected "workable" prices and the latest deals heard in the market.In the meantime, steelmakers were reported to be offering the material at ?,?485-495 per tonne ex-works."Demand is non-existent at the moment, which is a normal situation in [the second half of] summer. Usually, demand starts to increase in September, and mills use that to get higher prices, but this year outlook is still gloomy due to poor end-user markets," a Northern European source said."I think the market will pick up at the end of August-beginning of September, when stocks will have to...