N. European coil prices set to rise slowly

Friday, 10 July 2009

The third quarter €20-30/t price increases being sought by northern Europe's strip mills have so far only had a minimal effect on the market. Distributors have mixed feelings as to whether the market is yet able to absorb them. However for HRC, they believe an increase to above €400/tonne is now possible. CRC is said by some to be in the range €420-440/t, or slightly more.“I think that €20/t more will be accepted, but producers should not think that €30/t or €40/t will come through in the third quarter," says the head of an independent German service centre. But this might be possible "if you take the third and fourth together,” he adds.He confirms his company has felt "an upswing of activity compared with some weeks ago." But "we’re not back to full-time activity," he says, noting that the service centre is now operating two shifts.“With our supplier, we won’t have to pay an increase in July, but we were asked, and are prepared to do so in August,” a French stockist comments. Nevertheless, one local producer is positive that rising demand will allow the rises to go through. “We are more than fully booked in Q3, and lead times are spilling over from delivery in September into October now,” a sales manager says. “The last orders we had for HRC were at €370-380/t, and we are expecting some €30/t more for upcoming orders, for delivery in October, so I will ask for a price that starts with a four,” he adds.
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