North European buyers minimise steel price hikes: MEPS

LONDON (Scrap Monster): North European producers proposed very substantial increases in prices for strip mill products during the past month, said MEPS International in a research note.

However, demand is only at a moderate level and many buyers are able to consume their own inventory or source their limited requirements from stockists. Most deals were eventually settled at moderately higher figures than one month earlier - in many cases around €40 per tonne less than the mills had suggested, MEPS added.

Transaction values for hot rolled plate have risen less quickly than those for coil products, since the new year. This is despite demand from yellow goods, engineering, energy and offshore applications holding up at least as well as orders from other sectors.

The recent upward trend in prices for long products has subsided. Producers sought increased values for some products but these moves were resisted by buyers. Indeed, rebar prices, which react most quickly to changes in input costs, slipped back as a result of falling scrap values in late January and early February.

These reductions may be reversed, next month, in the light of a more recent recovery in scrap prices. The mills raised selling values for drawing quality wire rod again in the Nordic countries, this month, although there were no advances in mainland Europe, MEPS concluded.