Market sources confirm that ArcelorMittal has restarted offering coil to European clients from Tuesday, but the high level of uncertainty over future market supply amid the war in Ukraine has forced the company to lift prices.

Kallanish understands that ArcelorMittal is now offering hot rolled coil at €1,150/tonne ($1,282) ex-works, cold rolled coil at €1,250/t ex-works and hot-dip galvanized coil at €1,300/t ex-works. These new reference prices are set to be applied across all of Europe; spot allocations are expected to be limited, with supply focusing primarily on recurrent costumers and existing contracts.

At the end of last week, ArcelorMittal Europe paused offering coil in the market due to the increasing uncertainty generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The firm’s new offers are some €100-200/t above the latest transaction prices assessed by Kallanish up to the end of last week.

Market observers have stressed in recent days that Europe will be impacted by the halt in imports from both Russia and Ukraine of finished steel as well as raw materials, including pig iron and iron ore. Limited iron ore supply could soon force European mills to reorganise production shifts at their blast furnaces, thereby limiting overall availability of finished steel products in the regional market.