Markets in Europe

摘要

Rapid rises in spot EU markets have opened up a widening gulf between contract and short term prices. As the EU awoke to acute shortages in January even buyers who settled quarterly coil contracts early had to accept increases of 10-15 euros/tonne (13-15 euros/tonne). Late comers and spot buyers faced bigger increases. Prices were still moving up when we drew up our price table for the January issue, and we reported HR coil prices in Northern Europe reaching 350 euros/tonne (worth 445 euros/tonne in January) or more, with corresponding increases in downstream products. This was a fair representation of quotations for spot deals - by the end of the month prices were even higher - but did not represent contract prices.