This week, the European sheet market continued stalemate, steel mills and buyers are still game, mills hope to raise prices, but buyers are waiting for prices to fall.

Most traders believe the recent steel price increases is difficult to achieve, mainly due to three factors,one factor is low offer resources from Russia and China, along with low-cost resources arrivel market pressures continue to increase; the second one is from June and July are off-season of European car manufacturing, steel mill needs to reduce inventory of sheet before June, but due to weak market demand, it’s hard to raise price if the mill want to speed up the digestion of inventory; The third factor is the price of iron ore, coke, scrap and other raw materials prices are all in decline, the market bearish mood darker, not conducive to price increases.

Currently, the HRC ex-works Ruhr maintained at 405-415 euros / ton.

                                                                                XINSTEEL NEWS