Revista Infoacero Noviembre 2016

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

Les indicamos algunos de los contenidos de la misma:

  • Opinión – D. Sergio Cobos de Castro – Presidente de la Zona VII y Miembro de la Junta Directiva  de la UAHE.
  • Evolución del Índice de Precios UAHE
  • XII Fórum Productos Siderúrgicos – Barcelona, 20 de Octubre 2016.
  • Subvenciones Tic para PYMES: Ayudas para la implantación de Sistemas Tic en las empresas de Madrid y Galicia.

Infoacero – Noviembre 2016

ThyssenKrupp delivery problems tighten EU coil market

ThyssenKrupp’s European steel division has been hit by a “perfect storm” of events, which have left it struggling to meet orders and seen its offer prices stretch out beyond its competitors’, according to market sources.

Buyers have for months noted the German steelmaker was struggling to meet delivery commitments having suffered two fires which, sources have estimated, cost around 300,000 metric tons of production. A trader said one German service center had delays of six weeks for material due in week 41-42.

A relining of blast furnace B at TK’s affiliate Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (a 100 day reline that began in September) limited production at a time when the imminent reopening of the Sagunto galvanizing line near Valencia meant hot rolled coil would have to be redirected to act as feedstock for the Spanish mill.

The recommissioning of the 3.5 million mt/y galvanizing line was expected to help alleviate the tightness in the hot-dip galvanized coil market, but sources said the line’s capacity was instantly allocated to the thirsty automotive sector. “We approached ThyssenKrupp on the mill they reopened in Spain but they said all that galv is destined for auto,” a trader said.

A source at the German producer confirmed this, noting the reduction in import options for end-users. “Our galv line sold out instantly. The automotive companies need to buy more from the western Europeans. They all target to buy 10-15% from further afield but now they can’t,” he said, in particular noting anti-dumping tariffs for Russian cold rolled coil.

A number of market sources said ThyssenKrupp was also struggling from having oversold more generally in light of the increased need for domestic supply. Buyers quoted hot rolled coil offer levels from ThyssenKrupp as high as €595/mt ex-works, well in excess of the other major European producers.

“I hear that everybody is more or less at the €550/mt level: there’s one rumour that ThyssenKrupp sold too much around the time of EuroBlech (late October) when no-one was seeing these dramatic increases in coking coal costs, so they try now with remaining volume to make up for this. I can confirm that they’re at a higher price,” a source from another mill said.

While the ThyssenKrupp insider said the mill’s main problems were behind it, domestic supply in the European coil market remains acute with import options increasingly scarce, fuelling confidence that spot prices will increase further. However, fundamental demand remains flat leading service center and stockholder sources to question the sustainability of prices.

A ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe spokesperson confirmed a series of technical problems have disrupted deliveries, but said delivery delays are being managed. The company said it is currently investigating the restart of the Galmed galvanizing line in Spain but did not confirm it has reopened.

The spokesperson declined specific comment on pricing, but said: “In general, we still see big insecurities on the market that particularly result from the currently volatile raw material markets.”

Peter Brennan and Laura Varriale

EUROMETAL World Steel Distribution & SSC Summit [SAVE THE DATE]

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EUROMETAL will convene its most important event, World Steel Distribution & SSC Summit, in Düsseldorf on 10-12 May 2017.

This event will be organized at HILTON Düsseldorf hotel.

It will start on Thursday 10 May 2017 at 18.00 hrs with inaugural speeches, followed by a meet and great reception.

The conference program will continue on 11 May 2017 with presentations during the whole day.

Finally the conference will end on 12 May with a site visit to strip electroplating specialist TATA Steel Hille & Müller, located in Düsseldorf.

Below you may find a first outline of the event flyer, including the planned conference program.

Finally, the flyer gives also a discreet hint on sponsoring opportunities related to this major event.

We offer three sponsoring alternatives: Platinum, Gold and Silver.

Sponsoring stands will be located just opposite to the conference room.

The meet and greet reception will happen inside the sponsoring area.

Steel Distribution & SSC Summit 2017

Schaeffler sells fine blanking business to Swiss tool maker

German automotive and industrial bearings supplier Schaeffler is selling its fine blanking business to Swiss tool maker Güntensperger in order to streamline its activities, the company said.

Schaeffler’s blanking business based in Romanshorn, Switzerland, part of the company’s industrial division, has 20 fine blanking lines and processes strip steel and non-ferrous metals. The business generated CHF 50 million (€46.6 million) of revenue in the previous business year. The details of the transaction were not disclosed, but the takeover is scheduled for finalisation in the first half of 2017.

The move is part of its cost savings measures through consolidation of plants in Europe and Americas. “The sale of the fine blanking activities is an important first step towards a concentration on our core competencies and portfolio optimization,” said Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO of Schaeffler.

While Schaeffler was able to continue its growth trend in Q3 (ending 30 September 2016), it was hampered by its industrial division. Whereas revenue in the automotive division grew by 2.6% year-on-year to €7.7 billion in the first nine months of the year, the industrial division saw a revenue drop of 7.1% y-o-y to €2.3 billion, hit by a weak industrial market in all regions. The industrial division accounts for 22.8% of Schaeffler’s revenue. Nevertheless, the company expects positive effects from steel price increases.

Laura Varriale, PLATTS

IMS S+B Distribution to restructure 2017: sources

German special steel service center IMS Schmolz+Bickenbach Distribution is to undergo further restructuring and cut up to 105 jobs, according to local sources.

“It is well-known that the there is something in upheaval and that the company is in a restructuring phase. There are a lot of things on the plate right now,” the company told Platts on Monday, without giving further information.

According to local media, the service center will drop the Schmolz + Bickenbach branding and will be divided into five individual entities in the beginning of next year, which will entail a reduction of the workforce by 105. The service center was bought by French special steel distribution group Jacquet Metal Service (JMS) last year.

In its latest financial results report, JMS said: “For 2016, the division is focusing mainly on integrating and turning around the business of Schmolz+Bickenbach Distribution.”

Sales of engineering steels fell by 4%, as JMC cited “difficult” market conditions in Germany and a decision to no longer offer certain products designated as non-strategic.

Laura Varriale, Platts

EUROMETAL IBERIA: EU steel consumption to stagnate in 2017, Eurofer exec says

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European steel consumption will stagnate in 2017, the head of economic studies at Eurofer told delegates at the EUROMETAL Iberia conference in Portugal on Friday November 11.

Speaking at the EUROMETAL Steel Net Forum Iberia in Porto, Jeroen Vermeij said that European steel consumption will not grow year-on-year in 2017, in contrast with a forecast year-on-year growth of 2.20% in 2016.

This is a conservative forecast, Vermeij said, reflecting a weak economy and the tendency of what little market demand there is to be fulfilled by existing capacity and imports rather than new orders.

Apparent steel consumption in the first half of 2016 grew by 2.60% year-on-year while imports grew about 11% year-on-year, Vermeij said.

The growth outlook for next year is stagnant, he said, because private consumption, which has been the main driver of steel consumption in 2016, will not be able to compensate for low public spending and low private investment.

The automotive sector is the only industrial sector in Europe operating at pre-crisis production levels. All others, including residential construction, are still slowly recovering, he said.

In the third quarter of 2016, Europe’s GDP grew by only 0.40% year-on-year, and market conditions in Europe are not likely to improve.

Investors, however, are not only deterred by a weak market, but by geopolitical instability and high risks, Vermeij said, pointing to how the refugee crisis and Brexit have provided shocks to the European Union, threatening financial stability, trade deals and the Schengen agreement.

However, despite the bleak outlook, market sentiment remains positive, Vermeij said.

And Georges Kirps, director general at EUROMETAL, was more optimistic about steel consumption in 2017.

“The German economy is still booming,” Kirps said, “[and] I think European steel consumption growth will be somewhere between one and two percent.”

European industrial production has so far reflected this sentiment, increasing 1.10% year-on-year in the third quarter.

Lorenzo Holt, Metal Bulletin

 

EUROMETAL IBERIA: Is protectionism the best way ahead for European steel?

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The subject of European anti-dumping duties applied to cheap Chinese steel imports dominated discussions at the Eurometal: Iberia steelmakers and distributors conference last week in Porto, Portugal.

Darren O’Riordan, director general of China-owned steelmaker Ansteel’s Spanish branch, spoke during his presentation on Friday November 11 of the dangers of the EU’s recently applied trade barriers to Chinese products.

“Protectionism is good in the short term but not in the long term,” O’Riordan said. “[European] consumers should be careful.”

He argued that too much protectionism could effectively block all foreign imports and reduce the sourcing options available to consumers and distributors, making prices too high.

Since the beginning of this year, EU domestic ex-works prices in Southern Europe have risen to €440 ($477) per tonne from €290 ($315) per tonne for hot rolled coil (HRC), to €545 ($591) per tonne from €350 ($380) per tonne for cold rolled coil (CRC), and to €455 ($494) per tonne from €325 ($353) per tonne for steel plate.

Over the past few months, the EU has set anti-dumping duties on Chinese imports of HRC, CRC and steel plate, and it is speculated that duties on hot dipped galvanized coil (HDG) could be added.

As China attends to its own economic problems and tries to develop a more service-oriented economy, it has been dismantling domestic steel mills and plans to eliminate 100-150 million tpy of steel capacity over the next five years, at the cost of 400,000 jobs in the country, O’Riordan said.

Standing in front of a map of China’s “One Belt, One Road” economic development plan – which shows the country’s ambitions to forge new trade routes across Asia into Europe and Africa – O’Riordan explained how China was not focused on exporting basic steel to Europe but rather on expanding into much larger markets in Asia and elsewhere.

Nonetheless, many in the audience were in favour of the EU’s anti-dumping duties against China and found them to be helpful, if not a final solution to the woes of Europe’s steel industry.

“People emphasise [China’s] reduction in capacity, but production is what matters,” one delegate told O’Riordan during his presentation. “China is not reducing its production or its exports, and it’s not privatising either.”

Another delegate commented privately that, in order for a person to be a consumer, one first needed to have a job and an income.

A major point of contention when discussing European anti-dumping duties imposed against Chinese steelmakers is the support they receive from the Chinese government. Many, such as Ansteel, are state-owned.

China is expected to be granted market economy status (MES) by the World Trade Organization (WTO) after December 11, which would allow it broader access to the European market and would change the way the EU calculates anti-dumping margins against it.

On November 2, China asked WTO members to honour this impending change in regulation.

On November 9, however, in a move apparently directed at China, the European Commission proposed a revision to the methodology it uses to calculate anti-dumping margins even for MES member-states of the WTO, particularly in regard to under-priced imports from state-backed or state-owned entities.

Lorenzo Holt, Metal Bulletin

ASSOFERMET in Europa alla guida di EFR

Ieri a Bruxelles, in occasione dell’Assemblea Generale di EURIC (la Federazione Europea del Recupero e Riciclaggio a cui ASSOFERMET aderisce) sono state rinnovate anche le cariche di EFR (la Federazione di Settore dei Rottami Ferrosi), alla cui guida è stata nominata Cinzia Vezzosi in veste di Presidente, insieme ai Vice Robert Fell (BMRA) e Ion Olaeta Bolinaga (FER), delle Federazioni consorelle di Regno Unito e Spagna, che rimarranno in carico per il prossimo biennio.

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EU flats duties seen creating ‘monopoly’

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European trade defence measures against flat product imports could lead to a “… monopoly” of the region’s steelmakers whose recent price hikes are not justified by demand, according to Slawomir Boliglowa, chief executive of Polish service centre and distributor Maxstal.

Already-imposed anti-dumping duties on China have stopped imports from there of hot and cold rolled coil, and plate, while duties are also expected soon on imports from Brazil, Iran, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. “This will lead to a complete closing off of the European market for cheap product from the East,” Boliglowa tells Wirtualny Nowy Przemysl.

“We supported mills’ actions designed to strengthen the European market, but it seems to us that such a strong limiting of imports will cause a monopoly of European steelmakers, who are already increasing prices from month to month,” Boliglowa says in the interview monitored by Kallanish. “This [… price increase] is justified neither by the level of demand, which remains stable or is very slightly increasing, nor by raw materials prices.”

European mills’ plans to charge €500/tonne for hot rolled coil and €600/t for CRC in the first quarter next year signal a return to the high prices of 2007/08, he adds.

Duties on feedstock products could lead to increased imports of finished products such as pipe and profiles from Russia or Turkey, which would be a “… huge threat” to Europe’s distributors and service centres, according to Boliglowa.

“If imported finished profiles are cheaper than the sheet sold in our market that’s used to make them, then it would be an unprecedented threat to service centres,” Boliglowa observes. “In this situation mill-owned distributors will be at an advantage as they’ll have easier access to product direct from the producer.”

Maxstal is installing a new 30,000 tonnes/year cold-formed sections mill at its site in Krakow, with production expected to start by the end of March 2017. The new line is seen increasing the firm’s shipments by 25%.

Böllinghaus and Metalinox enter distribution partnership

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German headquartered hot rolled and stainless bar specialist Böllinghaus Steel has appointed Brazilian stainless steel distributor Metalinox Cogne Aços Inoxidáveis for the distribution of its entire product range, a note said on Böllinghaus’ website.

The companies worked together in the past and “the consequent logic step was to officially enter the distribution partnership,” the note said. “This agreement enables both partners to grow further in a particularly challenging market,” said Böllinghaus, without specifying the regional coverage.

Located in Hilden, Germany, Böllinghaus specializes in the distribution of stainless steel long products and has its own production facilities in Portugal.

As reported earlier this year, Outokumpu appointed Böllinghaus Steel as a distributor for its cold drawn and hot rolled bars in hexagons, squares and flats covering Europe (excluding Germany and UK), APAC and Latin America. In January, Böllinghaus Steel established a sales office in Chicago, US, to cater the NAFTA market.

Böllinghaus Steel declined to provide further information when asked by Platts.

Laura Varriale, PLATTS