Month: March 2017

Infoacero en su edición del mes de Marzo: INFOACERO

A continuación destacamos algunos de los contenidos de la misma:

• Opinión – D. Fernando Moraga Abaigar – Presidente de la Unión de Almacenistas de Aragón y Soria.

• Evolución del Índice de Precios de Productos Siderúrgicos –  UAHE

• Información Asociativa–Resumen de la Asamblea General de la Unió de Magatzemistes, 23 de Marzo – Gavá (Barcelona)

•  Próximos Eventos: IV Cumple Político Empresarial (PMcM), 20 de Abril y X Congreso de la UAHE, 25-27 de Mayo

Driven by connectivity-based services and new players entering the scene, the digital transformation of the automotive aftermarket business is rapidly gaining momentum and scope. These and other trends were highlighted at the 8^th Aftermarket conference on March 29/30, organised by CLEPA, the European Association of automotive suppliers, in Brussels.

“The share of digital products and services in the automotive aftermarket is expected to triple within the next decade, reaching almost 20%”, said Roberto Vavassori, President of CLEPA.

“The use of digital media and connectivity is now entering a new age, accelerating interaction between all market players.” Vavassori referred to the conclusions of a new McKinsey report on disruptive trends and possible scenarios for the further development of the automotive aftermarket. The study was conducted in close collaboration with CLEPA. First insights were presented at the conference and the full study will be available from June 2017.

“The value chain for spare parts and repair services, that used to be separated in an Independent Aftermarket (IAM) and an Original Equipment Sales (OES) channel, will be replaced by new collaboration models among connected market players”, added Sigrid de Vries, Secretary General of CLEPA. The key to this highly competitive and rapidly transforming market segment will be access to repair and maintenance information (RMI) and access to in-vehicle data.

In this respect, CLEPA closely follows the revision of the EU type approval regulation, currently discussed in the European Parliament and the Council of member states. Vehicle equipment information on VIN number basis and access to software and vehicle repair and maintenance information in the form of machine-readable and electronically-processable datasets are seen as important to underpin fair competition.

The CLEPA Aftermarket Conference, for the first time, gave room to small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups to present their views and ideas with regard to new business models and data-based services around mobility. Within the ‘digital transformation’ session, CLEPA introduced an outlook on telematics services, a marketplace for data as well for services such as cyber security, intelligent transportation offerings or parking.

All of these services are based on access to in-vehicle data, either created by separate devices installed in the vehicle, or using existing vehicle technology. The Aftermarket Conference participants were given an update on the European Commission’s thinking on this topic by Wolfgang Hoefs who introduced the “Building the European Data Economy” communication published earlier this year.

CLEPA actively supports the creation of a competitive single market for data services. A level playing field will be key to support the development of innovative and competitive services by various providers in the interest of the consumers. At the same time, vehicle integrity and vehicle security and safety must be ensured at all times. CLEPA strongly supports the five guiding principles defined by the European Commission in its cooperative, connected and automated mobility platform (C-ITS).

European automotive suppliers and vehicle manufacturers are currently in a proof-of-concept phase, in order to find a pragmatic, feasible and timely solution for access to in-vehicle data and resources for third parties via neutral as well as OEM-operated back-end servers.

CLEPA is the European Association of Automotive Suppliers. 121 of the world’s most prominent suppliers for car parts, systems and modules and 23 National trade associations and European sector associations are members of CLEPA, representing more than 3 thousand companies, employing more than 5 million people and covering all products and services within the automotive supply chain. Based in Brussels, Belgium, CLEPA is recognised as the natural discussion partner by the European Institutions, United Nations and fellow associations (ACEA, JAMA, MEMA, etc.).

Facts about the European automotive industry

• Some 12 million people are employed in the European automotive industry
• European automotive suppliers directly employ 5 million people
• European automotive suppliers invest €22bn in RDI per year. They are the biggest private investor into research and innovation
• Per year, 18 million vehicles are manufactured in Europe, contributing to the stability and growth of the European economy

For more information, please contact: Amalia Di Stefano, Chief Global Governmental Affairs & Communication Officer (a.distefano@clepa.be).

German steel service centre Becker will soon start slitting aluminium, Kallanish hears from its managing director Thilo Theilen at a flat products’ conference hosted by steel stockholders federation BDS in Düsseldorf.

As reported earlier, Europe’s largest steel service centre, owned by Klöckner & Co, decided to enter the aluminium business two years ago. “We approached aluminium rollers to entice them with the idea of service centres as an intermediate between producer and consumer,” Theilen recalls. Initially, the producers did not see the advantage in such a combination, given that they deal directly with all end-user customers.

However, changes in the auto industry, such as using aluminium increasingly for structural parts, have changed the picture, the MD explains. Also, the trend of OEMs increasingly relocating their production to other countries with automotive suppliers following, has also had an effect. “The question was what we could do also to prevent further migration,” he says.

“We know that the OEMs have many plans ‘in their drawers’ concerning which [… car] parts can be exchanged for aluminium. So far, the supply chains have not matured to safeguard the production all the way. Currently, both producers and users are discussing anew if they should do business directly, or via an intermediary.”

“What used to be a contentious issue, steel versus aluminium, we see as being side-by-side, depending which material it makes more sense to use in which parts,” Theilen adds. If the future brings driverless cars, which need to be based on a system involving a high level of accident prevention, crash safety properties will play a lesser role than absolute weight reduction, he argued.

He underlines that this is an add-on business for Becker to secure smaller, tailored sections of the aluminium market. The company’s new unit at its location in Boenen, Westphalia, will start slitting in May with cutting-to-length projected to commence one year later.

kallanish.com

Scrapping the lesser duty rule (LDR) in the European Union’s steel trade defense mechanism remains a bone of contention between EU member states, Aleksandra Kozlowska, a policy officer for steel at the European Commission said during a Central European steel meeting held by EUROMETAL in Warsaw on Wednesday.

“There is a group of blocking minority member states for whom free trade is more important that creating a level playing field for the manufacturers in steel industry,” Kozlowska noted. This group has for many years been led by the United Kingdom. “Let’s see what happens after Brexit. It is a big question for us in which direction this trade defense instrument will go,” she added.

In spite of the LDR stalemate the EC has managed to push through some changes in the EU’s policy towards the steel industry, Kozlowska claimed. “For those of you who will go and read the Commission’s communication four years ago you will see a shift. In 2013 the focus was on climate policy, on energy prices, last year it is definitely trade,” she said.

Kozlowska noted that the EU authorities started to use a threat of injury as a sufficient basis for opening a trade investigation, a provision that already existed in the EU legislation but was “for many many years inactive.” Citing last year’s probe into the imports of HRC from China, she pointed out that EU producers were not able to demonstrate material injury, but the arguments for the threat of injury “were so solid that we decided to open an investigation. We’re waiting for definitive duties against China.”

She also highlighted the new method adopted by the EU to calculate dumping. Contrary to the old system, dumping from a non-market economy will no longer be benchmarked against the costs of an analogous non-market economy. “Now we will be able to take the distorted costs of raw materials and calculate ourselves what should be the undistorted cost. So we abolish the lists of market and non-market economies,” the EC official explained.

On much criticized lengthy EU procedures in comparison with the US, Kozlowska said that the EU system involves certain steps that cannot be skipped, for example consultations with member states. “We can cut one or two months but not more. We will never be able to respond as fast as the USA,” she concluded.

Wojtek Laskowski, PLATTS

Provisional anti-dumping margins on rebar imports from Belarus imposed at 12.5% in December last year changed the Polish and the Baltic markets, previously the main destinations for Belarussian rebars. The two regions have been affected by the AD duty in a different way, however, participants in EUROMETAL’s Central European meeting in Warsaw noted on Wednesday.

In total, rebar imports from Belarus into the EU dwindled 35% (to 333,400 mt) in 2016 versus 2015, said EUROMETAL director general Georges Kirps. Most of the volumes landed in Poland and the Baltics. The final duties are due to be announced on 20 June. A Lithuanian reinforcing steel center, B Group, predicted the final AD margin is likely to be adjusted upwards to 18-19%. “It was the same with the rebar from China to the UK,” the company’s ceo, Donatas Gelazauskas, told Platts.

The Lithuanian steel distribution company noted that Belarus was the key supplier of rebar into the Baltics markets, particularly after the shutdown of Latvia’s Liepajas Metalurgs. “This makes it more difficult for local rebar processors to ensure stable rebar deliveries moving forward”, he said.

In Poland the four existing rebar mills are able to cover the local market regardless of changes on the import side. After the 12.5% AD was put in place, Belarus imports are less attractive, giving more leeway to Russian suppliers, particularly NLMK Kaluga. The volumes from Russia are moderate and are not bringing an injury to the Polish market, a Polish mill source told Platts.

“Scrap prices in Belarus are regulated and the export is prohibited. This was evidently helping the country’s only steelmaker with the cost of scrap accounting for 70% of the production cost. Scrap was some €100/mt cheaper in Belarus than in Poland,” according to a market observer.

A representative of Celsa Huta Ostrowiec noted that the Polish rebar demand should grow only slightly as the EU funding for infrastructure is likely to be delayed until 2018. “The hold-up will weigh on output until at least H2 2017 at the earliest, when pace of investment growth will regain momentum,” Celsa said. In 2016 Poland’s rebar consumption decreased 4.8% year-on-year, to 1.46 million mt.

In contrast, German rebar consumption grew 6.8% y-o-y, to 3.16 million mt, which translates to lower pressure of German exports in the Polish market, Celsa noted. The company was upbeat about German rebar consumption, citing “boom conditions in the residential market” and the government’s €2.1 billion infrastructure investment programme.

Wojtek Laskowski, PLATTS

Sibelco, a leading provider of industrial minerals and material solutions, has begun to use OMP Plus for Forecasting in their European operations, after an implementation period of only four months. Good forecasting is essential to work more proactively, and prepare for what customers need before they have actually placed their orders. OMP Plus helps Sibelco focus on a wider time horizon than just the current order book.

As a company upstream in the supply chain, Sibelco attaches great importance not only to advanced statistical forecasting, but also to collaborative forecasting with all stakeholders. After a convincing demonstration of OMP Plus’ capabilities in these areas, Sibelco was delighted with OM Partners’ powerful and advanced solution. A joint decision was made to use a phased approach, focusing first on the current forecasting process and a gradual onboarding of all business units. The project kicked off at the end of October, and has already gone live in February. Later stages of the project will focus on continuous improvements of the process as well as on financial forecasting.

Sibelco appreciated that OM Partners could provide advice and coaching on Sibelco’s responsibilities, such as data and change management, and test planning. Kurt De Kempeneer explains: “We selected OMP Plus for Forecasting knowing it was a state-of-the-art tool with a top class user interface. But during the project, we were also impressed by OM Partners excellent project management abilities.”

Øystein Gulliksen, European Supply Planning Manager at Sibelco explains: “At Sibelco, operational excellence is one of our core values. We take pride in being a global material solutions company with focus on our customer needs and requirements. As a consequence, forecasting is an essential building block in our Sales & Operations Planning. One of the challenges in our day to day business is to react to and serve faster our customers’ ever changing needs while lowering costs and optimizing inventories. To respond to this, the OMP Plus application helps us take our process to a more mature level by providing a structured forecasting environment, facilitating for a more time efficient process and greater cross-functional collaboration. During the project we also experienced that OM Partners’ commitment goes beyond just delivering a tool. We are pleased to see that OM Partners has shown a true understanding of our business and challenges, and a strong commitment to help us achieve these goals. We believe we have found a genuine business partner who helps us improve our business and deliver on our core values.”

Luc Bongaerts, Senior Business Development Manager at OM Partners says: “Sibelco has a clear vision on their supply chain roadmap and is ready to embark on a journey to improve its worldwide operations. It is a pleasure to work with such a small and strong team, dedicated to succeed and empowered by the top management. We are pleased that Sibelco connects the supply chain of raw materials with that of many of our other customers. This journey will undoubtedly improve planning in the extended enterprise.”

About Sibelco

Founded in 1872, Sibelco has grown into a material solutions business, today operating 213 production sites in 44 countries with a team of around 10,000 people. Sibelco works closely with their customers to create real value, drawing on the Group’s global resources and expertise to deliver local solutions.

About OM Partners

OM Partners is the best-in-class software and consulting company that offers Supply Chain Planning Solutions for the metals, plastics, floor covering, paper & packaging, chemical, pharmaceutical, food & beverage, consumer goods and other industries worldwide.
OM Partners has developed into one of the most important players in the Supply Chain Planning market since its founding in 1985.
OM Partners’ flagship product, OMP Plus, is a comprehensive solution for all planning related issues, from the strategic down to the operational level. OMP Plus makes integrated demand planning, supply planning and scheduling a reality.
OM Partners has headquarters in Belgium and offices in the USA, China, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.

More information about OM Partners and its solutions?

Please visit www.ompartners.com or send an e-mail to info@ompartners.com

The European Commission has decided not to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of hot rolled coil from Brazil, Iran, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine, according to two separate steel trade sources with knowledge of the case.

The Commission opened the investigation against these five countries on 7 July last year following a complaint by Eurofer. It has until 7 April to make a decision on provisional duties, but Platts was told it has decided not to do so. As consequence, EU importers will avoid paying tariffs on the HRC for the time being.

The grounds for the non-imposition of provisional duties are not clear. For some countries the tonnage involved might be too small. The increase in European market prices for coils might be a reason for judging an absence of dumping. EC trade officials had not responded to Platts requests for comment by deadline Friday.

Brussels now has until 6 October to decide whether to impose definitive AD duties on the HRC imports. “Probably some aggressive traders will close some deals in these days but they have a small window. We are noticing that the EC is shortening its investigation time so the decision could be taken even before”, a source from a large south European stockholder commented to Platts, underscoring that he will not take the chance to buy materials also because his stocks are medium-high as are most importers’.

A German stockholder confirmed to Platts that it had heard no duties would be imposed, and said that reactions on the market and what it would mean for import levels is yet to be seen. Imports from Russia and Brazil had been subject to registration since January this year, a move which would have enabled duties to be imposed retroactively.

The Commission is also investigating HRC from China, and imposed provisional duties of up to 22.6% last October. A final decision in this case is due by 7 April.

Annalisa Villa and Laura Varriale, PLATTS

Steel producers and distributors in Central and Eastern Europe counted last year as positive both in terms of sales and prices, Platts heard at EUROMETAL’s Central European meeting held in Warsaw on Wednesday. The price momentum continued through to the first quarter of 2017 but high inventory levels among stockholders and distributors are hampering further uptrend, they said.

A Polish rebar mill saw its prices keep rising this year, adding some PLN 200/metric ton (€47) to reach PLN 2,050/mt (€480) delivered, and a decrease is not in sight yet, it added. A regional construction steel fabricator noted that lower price levels were also possible despite bullish sentiment created by mills, however.

For ArcelorMittal this year started with positive sentiment and high industry confidence, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. While average EU-28 consumption is steadily recovering but is still below 2007-08 peak levels, eastern EU countries are highlighted as the only regions comfortably outperforming pre-crisis levels, said Laurent Plasman, head of operational marketing at ArcelorMittal flat carbon Europe. Total flat steel consumption in the V4 countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) surpassed 2008 pre-crisis levels (10.6 million mt in 2016 vs. 8.5 million mt in 2008), Plasman noted.

“Rolling mills have very good order books for flat products,” Roland Fazekas of Hungarian trading company Carboferr added. His Polish counterpart noted that the price momentum has somewhat weakened more recently as the market made large purchases of flat products in Q4 in anticipation of price hikes in Q1. He added that hot-rolled coil prices in Poland reached €560-570/mt base delivered but resisted further growth so far. At the same time, he noted that the EU mills remained firm on offers, claiming to be well booked for the coming months.

In Poland alone, apparent steel consumption hit an all-time high in 2016, at 13.1 million mt. Consumption of flat and long products reached 7.8 million mt and 4.2 million mt respectively, with the remaining 1.1 million representing tubes and hollow sections, said Piotr Sikorski of Polish Union of Steel Distributors (PUDS). The growth in steel usage brought no improvement in trade balance, with import growth of 7% outstripping 5% growth in export.

Wojtek Laskowski, PLATTS

The Eastern European flat steel market is “on the road to convergence” to Western Europe’s level, according to Laurent Plasman, head of operational marketing at ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon Europe.

This forecast is based on solid growth of gross domestic product (GDP), the development of construction industry and infrastructure, as well as strong domestic demand, Laurent Plasman told participants at the EUROMETAL Central Europe regional meeting in Warsaw on March 22.

GDP per capita in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary was 54% of the EU average in 2000, it jumped to 68% in 2010 and it is expected to reach 79% in 2020. However, the gap between GDP in Eastern Europe and Western Europe is expected to remain.

“[The improving GDP] obviously fuels consumption confidence and spending and translates into better steel demand,” Plasman said.

Strong growth in infrastructure and construction activity supports the positive outlook for the Eastern European market, he said.

Poland, the key Eastern European steel market, is the main beneficiary of EU funding and has received €78 billion ($84 billion) from the trade union – about 36% of the total funding provided by the EU to Eastern Europe.

Eastern European countries have been showing the fastest recovery in steel demand since the crisis.

“The European steel industry [took a big] hit during the crisis [of 2008-2009] and countries [have] seen a very problematic recovery, with demand in most of countries still below the pre-crisis level,” Plasman said.

The total compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for strip mills across Europe’s 28 nations (EU28) almost returned to a pre-crisis level in 2016, standing at 75 million tonnes in 2016, just 0.70% lower than in 2008. However, the major EU steel markets have remained below the 2008 level.

For Germany, the CAGR fell 0.10% to 18 million tonnes in the same comparison; while in France, CAGR was 4.90 million tonnes, about 4% lower than in 2008; in the UK, CAGR was 4.70 million tonnes n 2016, 1.80% lower; in Iberia (Spain and Portugal), it was 7.90 million, 1.90% below the pre-crisis level; in the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), it was 6.90 million tonnes, down by 1.40%; and in Italy it was 12.50 million tonnes, about 1.50% down compared with 2008.

In Poland, however, the CAGR jumped by 3.90% to 5.90 million tonnes in 2016 compared with 2008; while in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary it increased by 1.20% over the same period to 4.50 million last year.

Good private consumption and favourable interest rates will further boost steel demand.

“Eastern Europe has a very good production base [for steel coil] that can fully cover domestic demand in the region,” Plasman said.

ArcelorMittal has three mills in Poland and the Czech Republic, US Steel owns a mills in Slovakia, and in Hungary there is ISD Dunaferr.

However, steel imports to the region from China, Korea, Italy, Russia and Ukraine have been increasing to over the past couple of years.

Imports of steel products from Russia and Ukraine to the region jumped by 51% year-on-year in 2016 to 0.90 million tonnes, while imports from the two countries to the whole EU region grew only by 18% year-on-year to 3.60 million tonnes.

Imports of cold rolled coil (CRC) into the region dropped in 2016 after the European Commission (EC) started anti-dumping probe into the material, but the decline in import volumes was compensated for by increase in hot rolled coil (HRC) imports.

The EC set definitive 18.70-36.10% duties on CRC from China and Russia in August 2016.

It has also started two anti-dumping probes into HRC from six countries, including China, Russia and Ukraine.

While EU imports of steel from China were steadily growing, in Eastern Europe the numbers remained stable until spiking in 2016, when deliveries from China increased by 64% year-on-year to 120,000 tonnes.

“We see trade cases as an instrument to tackle unfair imports,” Plasman said. “ArcelorMittal is a global company, dependent on both imports and exports of all kinds of products. But long-term investments [have been] hampered by unfair trade.

“The flood of dumped imports has done a lot of damage to the EU steel industry. And this includes imports from countries like Iran, Russia, Ukraine and Brazil, not only China,” he added.

The influence of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union (Brexit), the worldwide geopolitical situation, and trade policy changes all bring uncertainties to the Eastern European steel market, Plasman said.

Maria Tanatar – Metalbulletin