Thyssenkrupp launches online retail shop in Germany

materials4me
Thyssenkrupp Materials Services, the distribution arm of the German steel group, has started its online retail shop, called Materials4Me, for the German market this week.

The online portal’s catalogue for the German market is offering 11,000 products to small businesses and end-users in small batches and standard sizes.

After the launch of Materials4Me in the UK and Spain, Germany is the newest market of Thyssenkrupp’s digital roll-out. The introduction of portals for existing customers in the Benelux countries, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland is also planned for the first half of 2016, the company said.

The steelmaker sees increasing potential of trading over the internet and is already close to making 10% of its materials sales online. “The question is when we will achieve 30% or 40% of our trading volume through online sales,” Hans-Josef Hoss, member of the executive board of Thyssenkrupp Materials Services, said earlier this year.

Also German steel dustributor Klöckner is shifting its business towards online trade. CEO Gisbert Rühl said that it would focus more on its online platforms for European and US customers than on physical distribution in future.

Laura Varriale, PLATTS

51st edition of worldsteel News

10358139_10152610019031067_7786283089127461920_n

Steel – The permanent material in the circular economy 

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has launched a new publication titled ‘Steel – The permanent material in the circular economy”. This publication highlights how steel enables a sustainable circular economy in which society reduces the burden on nature by ensuring resources remain in use for as long as possible. To get a quick overview of how steel contributes to the circular economy visit our new microsite or go to worldsteel.org.

worldsteel launches image library – ‘Steel never looked so good’
The library showcases the latest compliant images and videos of modern steel production processes from ironmaking to finished products. It is fully searchable and high-resolution images are downloadable for free editorial use.The images and videos have been commissioned by worldsteel, produced by Getty Images, and shot by leading photographers and videographers.
Read more… 

Steel Safety day – 28 April 2016
worldsteel has announced its third annual Steel Safety Day. Ahead of Steel Safety Day worldsteel is requesting all its members and the wider steel industry to carry out an extensive safety audit on the five most common causes of incidents. This year’s Steel Safety Day focuses on ‘Falling From Height’.
Read more…

worldsteel Short Range Outlook 2016/2017
worldsteel released its Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2016 and 2017. It forecasts that global steel demand will decrease by -0.8% to 1,488 Mt in 2016 following a contraction of -3.0% in 2015. In 2017, it is forecast that world steel demand will return to growth of 0.4% and will reach 1,494 Mt.
Read more.. 

worldsteel proposes key principles on excess capacity and structural adjustment in the steel sector
On Monday and Tuesday 18 & 19 April 2016, representatives of government and industry met in Brussels. The OECD is a useful multilateral platform for discussion between government and industry on topics of importance to the steel industry.
Read more…

worldsteel announces steelChallenge-10 world champions
worldsteel has announced the new world champions of the 10th steelChallenge. The winners competed for the global title in the Industry and Student categories. The task was to produce an experimental grade of automotive steel that focuses on the chemical composition of nickel, chromium and molybdenum. Check out who won the competition this year.
Read more…

Polish steel consumption shows steady growth in near term

Poland’s apparent steel consumption for 2015 reached 12.5 million metric tons, up by 1.6% year-on-year, the highest result in 12 years, Piotr Sikorski, the marketing and PR director at Polish Union of Steel Distributors (PUDS), said at the EUROMETAL Central European regional meeting in Prague this week.

The country should register further growth this and next year with finished steel consumption expected to reach 12.8 million mt and 13.1 million mt respectively, Sikorski noted.

From the 12.5 million mt of finished products used last year 6.9 million mt were flat products, 4.6 million mt longss and 1 million mt of tubes and hollow sections. This year apparent steel consumption of flats should inch up to 7.1 million mt, while longs usage should be at 4.7 million mt.

Construction remains the main consumer, accounting for 44% of the total, followed by metal products (16%), machinery (10%), tubes (9%) and automotive (8%), the PUDS representative said.

Rising consumption seems to be benefiting importers more than local producers, as the country’s imports grew steadily from 5.5 million mt in 2009 to 9.1 million mt in 2014 and dipped only 0.1 million mt last year (to 9 million mt). The imports outpaced the exports which grew from 4 million in 2009 to 4.9 million mt last year.

Imports are dominated by flat products, representing 65-66% of the total in the last three years. The EU countries remain the main trading partners for Poland although non-EU states are still significant, accounting for 34% of the total imports, mostly from the CIS.

Last year imports from Russia jumped 37% y-o-y, to over 600,000 mt. At the same time, imports from Ukraine contracted 18% y-o-y to slightly over 800,000 mt from over a million in 2013. Imports of long products from Belarus, doubled last year, to approach 300,000 mt. China remains less relevant for the Polish market, although volumes are growing, to around 150,000-160,000 mt in 2015, 9% up y-o-y.

Wojtek Laskowski, PLATTS

EUROMETAL PRAGUE: EU mulls probe into wire rod from 4 countries

IMG_7155

The EU may start an anti-dumping probe into wire rod imports from Belarus, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, participants at the Eurometal Central Europe meeting in Prague said on Tuesday April 19.

The European steel association, Eurofer, has started collecting evidence of dumping from the four countries and is preparing to make a decision on filing the complaint to the European Commission, Steel First understands.

“The rumours about the possible anti-dumping investigation into imported wire rod have been circulating in the market for about two weeks. It seems to be part of the EU strategy to become more [protectionist] when it comes to cheap imports,” a trader told Steel First on the sidelines of the conference in the Czech Republic capital city.

“Eurofer has not sent any official complaints or other papers to the EC yet, but the discussion is going on within Eurofer,” another trader said at the same event.

Eurofer declined to comment.

Growing volumes
The monthly average of wire rod imports into the European Union jumped by 23% year-on-year to 139,000 tonnes in 2015, according to the latest data from Eurofer. And in the first two months of 2016, average import levels of the material reached 144,000 tpm.

Monthly average wire rod exports from Ukraine to the EU have increased by 24% year-on-year to 31,000 tonnes last year, and reached 35,000 tpm in January-February 2016.

Belarus exported an average of 10,000 tpm of wire rod to Europe in 2015, after no shipments to the EU in 2014, with the figure jumping to 15,000 tpm in January-February this year.

Russian steelmakers, meanwhile, saw their  average exports of the product to Europe increase by 89% year-on-year to 17,000 tpm in 2015. However, average sales from Russia in January-February this year fell to 11,000 tpm.

Wire rod imports from Turkey averaged 10,000 tpm in 2015, up by 17% year-on-year, while in the first two months of this year the average has dropped to 3,000 tpm.

The EC initiated an anti-dumping probe into rebar from Belarus in late March this year, and imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on high-fatigue performance (HFP) rebar imported from China in January.

Nina Nasman in London contributed to this report.

By Maria Tanatar from Steel First.

Meeting of Main Steel EU Distributors & Flat SSC in Frankfurt (DE)

You are kindly invited to attend the EUROMETAL Meeting of Main EU Steel Distributors & SSC to be convened in Frankfurt on 21.June 2016.

EUROMETAL is proud and honored to announce that expert speakers accepted to be present at the meeting and participate in the debates about key issues facing steel distribution and SSC.

 

Key issues to be debated are among others:

– Steel distribution and SSC: How to weather the steel crisis and structural changes

– Basic trends and developments in key end use sectors, like automotive

– The impact of spreading trade cases on  steel supply chains

– A project to improve technical efficiency of steel supply chains

– Competitiveness of EU steel distribution and SSC: latest available benchmarks

 

In the attachments you may find your invitation to the meeting, including a registration form, as well as a brochure of Roland Berger about Weathering the Steel Crisis

Emmanuel Bonnaud, partner at Roland Berger, Paris, will be a key note speaker to the meeting.

 

Please note that on 21. June 2016, from 10.00-12.00 Hrs we will convene a meeting of EUROMETAL Presidency at same location.

 

With kind regards,

Georges Kirps

Director General EUROMETAL

 

Roland_Berger_TAB_Crisis_in_steel

EUROMETAL METING OF MAIN EU STEEL DISTRIBUTORS & SSC

Weak market sees BE Group close Czech and Slovak operations

platts

Sweden-based steel distributor BE Group has announced plans to close its loss-making operations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The move is designed to improve profitability and allow it to focus more intensively on its main markets in Sweden, Finland and the Baltics.

The company said the market in the Czech Republic and Slovakia has seen negative developments for a number of years, and BE’s companies there have continued to make losses “despite several measures taken to reach profitability.” Their turnover reached SEK 382 million (€41.3 million) in 2015 and operating losses were SEK 32 million.

“Against this background and the prevailing weak market outlook,” BE Group said it has decided to “close down the business in Slovakia and stop selling flat carbon steel and aluminum on the Czech market”. The profitable round bar business in Prerov, Czech Republic, is not affected by the closure decision. The one-time cost of the closures was put at SEK 45 million.

As a consequence of the closures, BE has announced organizational and management changes with effect from the second quarter of 2016. Its Swedish business unit will take over BE Poland and some other operations, and will be headed by group president and CEO Anders Martinsson.

Its “other units” business area will disappear with the Czech and Slovak closures. Its Finland unit will continue to include group operations in the Baltic countries and Lasse Levola will remain in charge.

The group’s top management team will be reduced from five to three, plus a new director who is currently being recruited “to strengthen the group’s strategic sourcing,” it said.

Henry Cooke, PLATTS

Revista Infoacero Marzo 2016

logoweb

 

Pueden acceder a nuestra Revista Infoacero correspondiente al mes de Marzo.

Les indicamos algunos de los contenidos de la misma:

  •  Opinión – “El Efecto Mariposa” – D. Fernando Moraga– Miembro de la Junta Directiva  de la UAHE.
  •  Evolución del índice de Precios Medios de Productos Siderúrgicos.
  •  Información Asociativa: Asamblea General Unió de Magaztemistes de Ferros de Catalunya i Balears (Barcelona, 10 de Marzo)

              – Reunión de la Unión de Almacenistas de Hierros de Aragón y Soria  (Alcañiz, Teruel 17 de Marzo)

  •  Artículo ANIFER (Asociación Nacional de Industriales de Ferralla)-  D. David Fernández – Secretario General
  •  Próximos Eventos: Eurometal Regional Meeting (Praga 19 de Abril)  European Steel Day (Bruselas 21 de Abril)
  •  Colaboración ASCEM: “El Acero en el nuevo entorno colaborativo BIM”- D. Josep Maria Bases– Export Manager en AGLIA EXPORT.

Infoacero-Marzo-16

Infoacero-Marzo-16

EUROMETAL Regional Meeting Nordics Stockholm 26 April 2016

regional-meeting_nordics

Dear members, subscribers and colleagues,

The program of EUROMETAL Regional Meeting Nordics, Stockholm, Nordic Light Hotel,26 April 2016, is now finalized.

In the attachment you may find your invitation to assist to the meeting, including your registration form, to be returned to office@eurometal.net before 21. April 2016.

Attached you will also find the flyer regarding the meeting with useful information about the conference program and the conference location.

Hoping to meet you in Stockholm on 26.APRIL 2016.

Best regards

Georges Kirps
Director General EUROMETAL

EUROMETAL REGIONAL MEETING NORDICS STOCKHOLM 2016 APRIL 26 – INVITATION AND REGISTRATION FORM

EUROMETAL REGIONAL MEETING NORDICS STOCKHOLM 2016 APRIL 26 – FLYER AND PROGRAM