The European market for domestic hot-rolled coil has been quiet over the past week with domestic steelmakers taking a step back from trading activity but expected to return with higher offers soon, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday November 13.
And the anticipated offer rise was expected to be at least partially accepted by buyers, the sources added.The positive mood in the market was backed up by production cuts across Europe, a degree of recovery in demand, and the lack of competitive offers of overseas material.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HRC, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?420-425 ($463-468) per tonne on November 13, compared with ?,?415-425 per tonne a week earlier.The assessment was based on the average "workable" prices heard in the market.Some sources also believed that buyers were ready to accept prices of ?,?430 per tonne ex-works, but that figure was not included in the assessment because no business has been transacted at this level yet.A few sources also estimated the achievable price to be...