Europe's iron and steel market has been significantly flat, with factors such as the New Year holidays, reduced demand, lower production and trade slowdowns all contributing to a marked stagnation in the sector. Many businesses limited their activities during the holidays, leading to a slowdown in imports and exports, and with all eyes on the sectoral obligations expected to be in place by 2024, there is a noticeable slowdown in trade volumes in the sector.
At the same time, in a new announcement, the European Commission published default values for determining emissions in imported products for the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism at the (CBAM) transition period. During the transition phase, CBAM will only apply to imports of cement, iron and steel, aluminum, fertilizer, electricity and hydrogen. For this reason, EU importers will have to start collecting data from the fourth quarter of 2023 and prepare their first reports by January 31, 2024 at the latest, which can be revised by the end of July next year.
Benelux
International scrap markets continue to be quiet this week. However, the market environment has turned negative after last week's release of a deal from the Netherlands to Türkiye at a low price. Although the market remains weak, exporters claim that they will not be able to offer any discounts. SteelRadar's daily price assessment for HMS 1&2 (80:20) was $381/t FOB Rotterdam.
Spain
Spanish rebar exports rise as local prices fall. Spanish customers did not accept the rebar price hike announced by local producers two weeks ago and the product was sold at lower prices. Meanwhile, export prices increased in the second half of December. This week, local rebar in Spain traded around EUR620/t EXW (EUR343/t EXW, basis) for 12 mm B500SD grade.
Italy
Hot rolled steel prices in Italy reached €680-690/t ex-works between December 15-22 this year, up €20/t from the previous week. Since early December, prices have increased by €80/t or 13.1%. As of the end of December 2022, hot rolled steel prices in Italy amounted to €650/t ex-works. Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal continues to increase hot rolled coil prices across Europe. However, the Italian market is still far from ArcelorMittal's desired level, but prices are expected to continue to rise after the winter break.
United Kingdom
UK wire mesh prices have changed this week.
There was a decrease in prices.
According to the new week's data, the wire mesh price, which was announced as 600.00 USD last week, was announced as 595.00 USD this week. It is remarkable that prices have decreased by 5 USD since last week. In the coming days, it is expected to track how prices will change in the coming days.
Poland
Having not seen an increase in production in the sectoral context since the past few weeks, Poland continued its stable trend. According to SteelRadar data, rebar prices were last recorded at $635/t CPT during the New Year's week, up by USD 5.
On a yearly basis, steel production in Poland increased by 26.2%, but the monthly average steel output was recorded at 543.6 thousand tons, a decrease of 17.51% compared to 2022. All eyes are on this year's production rates, despite the unpredictability.
Germany
Early in 2024, Germany, which has yet to make any noticeable progress, has reportedly reduced its scrap exports over the past year.
Shipments from Germany reportedly fell 3% on the year to 6.45 million tons, with exports to Belgium and Switzerland showing the largest declines, while shipments to India more than doubled, reversing the trend. According to SteelRadar, the total export value amounted to €3.3 billion ($3.63 billion) in 2023, compared to €4.3 billion in 2022.
SteelRadar recorded a steady increase only for iron ore during the New Year's week, last seen up $7 to $131.45 on January 3, 2024, while rebar was stable at $635.
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