Month: June 2016

Daniel Guinabert and Julian Verden have been nominated to Eurometal’s presidency board, filling the two vacant spaces, in a meeting held June 21 in Frankfurt.

Verden is a managing director of Stemcor Europe, while Guinabert is CEO of ArcelorMittal Distribution Solutions.

Each has held similar roles on the International Steel Trade Association and the French steel distribution federation respectively. EUROMETAL is the association representing steel traders, service centers and stockholders.

— Alex Van Tuyl

EUROMETAL are pleased to announce that the two vacant seats on EUROMETAL Presidency board have now been filled, by approving to nominate Daniel Guinabert and Julian Verden to it at a recent EUROMETAL Presidency meeting held on 21 st June 2016 in Frankfurt.

Daniel Guinabert is CEO of ARCELORMITTAL DISTRIBUTION SOLUTIONS BD Downstream. Daniel is a former president of French steel distribution federation FFDM.

Julian Verden is Managing Director of STEMCOR Europe and a former chairman of ISTA, the London based International Steel Trade Association

Germany’s stockholding distributors reported outsell price increases for all products in April, with some of them being significant, according to their federation BDS.

The upwards movement began in March, albeit with a delay from the hikes that were initiated by the mills, and gained traction in April. Sales of rolled steel products by distributors in April totalled 954,000 tonnes, Kallanish hears from a BDS report.

April thus showed some volume recovery from a March which had seen a year-on-year dip mainly because of the early Easter holiday this year. An upward trend had begun in February and has continued. The March dip was slight in absolute terms therefore despite more non-business days, and was evened out by a better April.

With a volume of 3.671 million tonnes, the first four months of the year in terms of sales are on par with the corresponding period in 2015. Inventories, which stood at 2.06mt on 31 December, and thus -9% below those at the end of 2014, have been moderately replenished and had reached 2.32mt at the end of April. This narrowed the y-o-y gap to 3%, BDS data show. At 72 days of sales in both March and April, the inventory levels were down from a figure 78 days in the same period of 2015.

US service centres are managing their businesses carefully to balance rapid mill increases and moderate demand, Kallanish learns from market sources.

“The smart ones have a balanced inventory,” says one Midwest service centre executive. “We either get our price or pass on the opportunity.”

There are still deals available from some mills, despite the prevailing hot-rolled price of $630-650/short ton, he adds.

“There is a lot of pushback and in many cases they find someone desperate enough to sell to them well below the going market price,” he says.

A second Midwest service centre executive says distributors are trying to keep pace with mill increases, but available inventory deals undercut that opportunity.

“Prices have moved up very fast at the mill level,” he says. “There are many more businesses who sell from inventory. This remains intensely competitive, but prices at distributors are moving up and chasing replacement costs. But it takes longer for all the prices to work through the supply chain.”

The excessive use of trade defence measures on countries other than China, could result in damaging the competitiveness of the European manufacturing industry, Italian steel trade association Assofermet says. The association’s stance was laid out by its president Tommaso Sandrini in an open letter addressed to European institutions and companies in, and associated with, the steel sector,and  monitored by Kallanish.

The tariffs currently imposed on Chinese steel imports by the EU are supported by Assofermet, as these measures are “… dictated by necessity, common sense and fairness,” Sandrini says. However, Eurofer’s recent request to initiate a new investigation on hot rolled coils originating in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Iran, Turkey, Serbia and Brazil, could represent a threat for the regional industry, Assofermet warns.

The implementation of AD duties on other countries would create “… potential oligopolistic conditions in the European market,” and “… increased volatility,” which in turn would favour “… speculative behaviour,” Assofermet says.

With the exception of China, none of these countries could represent a real threat to European steel producers. This is due to “… the heterogeneous conditions in those countries which does not allow a coordinated commercial policy.” Moreover, “… none of these countries provides public subsidies comparable to those seen in China,” Sandrini adds.

If the EU follows this strategy, the regional industry could become a closed market. This would eventually favour local steel producers at the expenses of service centres, re-rollers, independent distributors, and, ultimately, the regional manufacturing industry, Assofermet says.

KallanishSteel