EUROMETAL STOCKHOLM: Focus is on regaining margin, participants say
Participants at the EUROMETAL Nordics regional meeting in Stockholm are considering the opportunities and challenges, including bigger profit margins, in the development of the region’s market through the course of 2016.
“For us, it’s about increasing margins and focusing on customers’ demands and needs, using a more market-driven approach,” Michael Anderson, md for Scandinavian distribution at Tata Steel, told Steel First on Tuesday April 26.
Tata Steel bought Swedish steelmaker SSAB’s steel service centres (SSCs) in Halmstad, Sweden, and Naantali, Finland, as well as its 50% interest in Norwegian service centre Norsk Stål Tynnplater, in February 2015.
The desire not to lose custom to cheap imports from outside the European markets has triggered a race to maintain market share at the expense of margins, participants said.
The need to move away from a volume-driven market strategy was discussed by many participants at the session, with others advocating the importance of adding value for end-users and tailoring business to the needs of customers.
“This could include digitising our service offering,” one delegate said on the conference sidelines.
“Collaboration across the supply chain needs to come back,” another participant said.
Other topics for discussion included tackling overcapacity in the Nordic region, and the need for consolidation.
Apparent steel consumption in the Nordic region – Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway – rose year-on-year to 9.5 million tonnes in 2015, up from 9.2 million tonnes in 2014.
On average, SSCs in the Nordic region reported a profit margin of 1.30% in terms of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) in 2015, compared with 0.80% in 2014.
Viral Shah, SteelFirst
NASS Steel Industry Safety and Health Awareness Day
The National Association of Steel Service Centres (NASS) in conjunction with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Wolverhampton City Council are hosting our annual Safety and Health Awareness Day (SHAD) aimed at tackling common health and safety issues in the Steel Service Centre and Stockholding Industry.
Wednesday 29th June 2015, 09.30 – 15.00
Tata Steel Training Centre,Steelpark, Steelpark Way, Wednesfield, WV11 3SQ
The HSE will be presenting on the subject of Heavy Lifting and explaining legal requirements, planning, examination and competence when using overhead cranes to handle steel stock as well as what to expect from a HSE inspection. The HSE will also be exploring eliminating risks involved Metal Working Fluids and what Inspectors will be looking for when with working with hazardous substances.
The EMF Comp Limited will focus on changes to risk assessments bought about by the Electro Magnetic Fields Directive due to come into force in October 2016 and what this means for Steel Manufacturing. Securus Health and Safety Limited will be conducting a practical session for Practitioners with emphasis on coaching others and collaboration with managers to support them in exercising their responsibilities. NASS will then be exploring whether we are oblivious to unsafe working procedures and looking at potential consequences
The Seminar will round up with a Question and Answer session with a panel comprised of representatives from the HSE, Metals Forum and the NASS Health and Safety Committee.
Please advise overleaf if you would like a question to be put to the panel.
The fee for this event is £60 for NASS Members and £70 for non NASS Members
For more information or to book a place, please fill in the Booking Form or contact joy.graham@nass.org.uk ( 0121 200 22 88)
Fondazione Promozione Acciaio – Maggio 2016
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Klöckner confident on extended pricing recovery
Steel distributor Klöckner is confident that there will not be any sudden price slumps this year, with price increases possibly extending beyond the third quarter, CEO Gisbert Rühl told Platts.
“The market is volatile of course, but there will not be continued price drops,” said Rühl at a press call on Wednesday, adding that he also does not expect a “bursting bubble” with sudden falls.
The European and US steel markets are recovering, thanks to anti-dumping measures plus increasing iron ore and scrap prices, said Rühl, highlighting, however, that the recovery is not being driven by growing demand.
In its outlook for 2016, Klöckner said it expects a growth in real steel demand of 2%, both in Europe and the US. Positive effects are forecast to come from the construction industry (with France being the only difficult market), the automotive sector and a fairly stable mechanical engineering industry. The energy industry is expected to decline further, especially in the US.
As reported, Klöckner will also see changes in its supervisory board this year, with ex-Tata Europe CEO Karl-Ulrich Köhler and investor Friedhelm Loh, who holds 25.5% in Klöckner, standing for election at the annual meeting next week.
Köhler joined Loh’s manufacturing company Rittal after leaving Tata in March. “I am very satisfied with Loh’s decision to take a seat on the board. I expect positive impulses coming from Loh and Köhler for the company. If Köhler had not joined Loh, we probably would have asked him ourselves to join the board,” said Rühl.
Laura Varriale, PLATTS
Klöckner sees upward movement in Q1, plans further cuts
Germany-based distributor and service center operator Klöckner is to streamline and centralise the management structure of its European distribution services, as the business area remains “problematic”, CEO Gisbert Rühl said on Wednesday, while reporting upward trends in the company’s first quarter results.
In Q1 this year, Klöckner increased its EBIDTA operating profit by €6 million year-on-year to €16 million. Owing to restructuring processes, which included the closure of 16 locations primarily in France and the UK, sales revenue went down by 18.3% y-o-y to €1.4 billion and shipments decreased by 6.3% to 1.6 million metric tons.
“We will centralise distribution and get rid of double functions within countries, working transnationally so that the European distribution can be self-sustaining,” said Rühl. Klöckner’s net income remained negative at €14 million, but saw a significant positive trend from last year’s first quarter when the net result was a loss of €22 million.
Klöckner wants to save around €25 million through continuing cost cutting, but said it would not close any more sites in Europe. “We cannot have CFOs and COOs on every country level. The reduced headcount will be noticeable in the organisational structure,” said Rühl, adding that he cannot rule out that job cuts in the management structure would exceed 100.
Looking ahead to the coming months, Klöckner said it is confident that it will increase its income further in Q2 and return to positive net income in its full-year results thanks to a stabilised market (see related article).
Laura Varriale, PLATTS
What is included in the Tata UK portfolio?
As the race to buy the rest of Tata Steel’s UK business quickens, what will either Liberty House Group or Excalibur Steel Limited get for their money if they take on the whole venture?
The main facility is at Port Talbot, South Wales, now the UK company’s only integrated steelmaking plant. It produces hot and cold rolled strip products and employs 4,000 people. Neighbouring Llanwern, has galvanising and pickling plants and Orb Works in Newport produces electrical steel. These two plants between them have 1,250 employees.
Other Welsh plants are those in Trostre, also in South Wales which produces tinplate with 658 employees, and in Shotton, North Wales where there is a galvanising and colour coating facility employing 700. Building Systems in Caerphilly, South Wales produces roofing and cladding systems for the construction sector with a 200-strong workforce.
Tata’s engineering and speciality steel operations in South Yorkshire in Rotherham and Stocksbridge have a total staffing of 1,700 people equally divided between the two sites. Tube and pipe are produced at mills in Hartlepool in the north-east of England and in Corby in the UK midlands. These plants employ 500 and 550 employees respectively.
Tata also has two research facilities, one located in Rotherham and one based at Warwick University, employing another 200 people in total. The main UK distribution operation is based at Wednesfield again in the midlands, where Tata employs 450 people.
Some of these operations have overseas branches which are not included in the proposed UK package up for sale, Tata Steel tells Kallanish.
GFRP rebars: composites building on a niche
Glass fiber reinforced polymer is gaining space over steel in some applications where corrosion-resistance is key. It won recognition when a fiberglass Disneyland attraction proved stronger than expected during demolition
Longs distributors registered increased sales in Q1: Euromet
Distributors of long products (including rebar, beam and merchant bar) in Europe saw their overall volumes sold during Q1 rise some 6% y-o-y, according to the latest report published by EUROMETAL.
The association tracked the EU28 distribution of long products from main multi-product distributors. It added that, while rebar shipments went up 7% y-o-y and beam shipments 13% y-o-y, merchant bar shipments were down by 8% y-o-y.
While sales volume have recovered somewhat, stocks have continued decreasing, in March reaching a level of 58 days of sales for long products in Europe; down from 62 days in March 2015 and the average of 65 days registered during the whole of last year.
Overall for March, stocks in Europe were registered by EUROMETAL at 67 days of sales for beams, 77 days for merchant bars and 32 days for rebar.
In detail, Germany saw its long product volumes sold by distributors moving down 4% y-o-y in Q1, while the UK and the Netherlands registered a recovery of over 10% y-o-y.
Emanuele Norsa, PLATTS
HFP rebar trade case
Attached you may find a communication which EUROMETAL received from EU DG Trade regarding the HFP rebar trade case.
EU_DG_TRADE_HFP_REBARS_Annex_1_AD619_General_Disclosure_Document
