Month: June 2018

EUROMETAL is organizing it’s Yearly Event in Hamburg, Germany, on 08th – 09th of October 2018.

The Steel Net Forum, will address key topics like Industry 4.0 strategies, Internet of Things, digitalisation, steel logistics, the role of independent steel distribution.
This session will close with a panel discussion on how steel distribution is enhancing the value chain of Steel.

In the afternoon the International Steel Trade Session will debate latest developments in the field of steel trade policy, anti-dumping, steel trade cases, safeguard measures, the rising protectionism and their impacts on the the steel supply of the European market.

You’re kindly invited to this important conference which will gather an high level panel of experts, professionals and key steel players.

Please confirm your participation by returning the registration form in the invitation below.

EUROMETAL Steel Net Forum & International Steel Trade Day – AGENDA & INVITATION

Empire Riverside Hotel – BOOKING

With best regards,
Georges Kirps

Silver Sponsor

Event Partners

ArcelorMittal continues to invest strongly in both its European operations and also in its product development for the automotive sector.

The steelmaker is installing a new high-technology welding line at its ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks Lorraine facility in Uckange in France, it tells Kallanish. The new line follows a €7 million ($8.2m) investment the company says.

It will be the world’s first installation and application of a technology which enables two key processes in the production of laser welded blanks (LWB) – welding and partial ablation – to occur simultaneously. This will result in a 50% capacity increase when production begins – expected in September 2019.

The decision to locate the new welding line in Uckange is based on the proximity to the supply of press hardenable steel.  This is required in the production of tailored blanks and will be supplied from ArcelorMittal’s plants in Florange and Mouzon. Uckange is also well-located for supply and distribution to ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks’ key automotive customers, the steelmaker says.

The investment in the new welding line was made with the support of Tailored Blanks Lorraine’s local community and government stakeholders. The Grand Est region will provide 10% of the investment and 25% of the related R&D expenses, and the Val de Fensch community will also provide co-investment in the new installation. ArcelorMittal will also employ local companies for specific parts aspects of the project, it confirms.

Steel Solutions, a steel logistics company based in Maastricht, is in the process of expanding its storage facilities in Holland and plans to open a site in Italy either later this year or next.

The company has been operating three warehouses up to now with two in Maastricht and one in nearby Born, the biggest inland container terminal in Benelux. In addition, it has just acquired another warehouse in Maastricht, says managing director Wibo Feijen, who will also speak this week at the Kallanish European Steel Markets conference in Antwerp.

The new Maastricht warehouse has 25,000 tonnes of extra capacity for stocking coil and sheet. It is already partially operational and is being prepared to be enabled to handle up to 60,000t by the end of the year.

According to Feijen, business for independent logistics suppliers has been increasing since 2008. “Before that, the mills’ own distribution networks were much bigger than they are now,” he explains. Steel Solutions has rail connections at its main sites with five trains operating each week, “… but we could need eight,” Feijen says.

Due to increasing inquiries from customers in southern Europe the company plans to expand into Italy, where it has secured a space in Milan. It has postponed its plans for establishing a logistics hub however due to the insecurity caused by the US trade measures and their possible repercussions on Europe.

“In the light of the Trump regulations we will monitor business impact for the coming three months. If perspectives do not change intangibly we are planning to be up and running in Italy by the beginning of 2019. It is our plan to service Southern Europe from Italy as we do Western Europe from Maastricht,” Feijen says.

The Spanish distributors’ association Unión de Almacenistas de hierros de España (UAHE) has named Roberto González from Tirso CSA as its new president during its annual general meeting this week, Kallanish learns.

González has been vice-president of the association during the last year and takes over the presidency from Juan Carlos Núñez. Together with the installation of González, UAHE members named Fernando Moraga from Grupo Hierros Alfonso as vice-president.

During the next four years the new president intends to continue working towards increasing the use of steel as well as pushing  digitalisation further amongst the association’s membership, UAHE says.

kallanish.com

The market for beams in Germany and is busy and healthy, but the amount of cross-border activity continues to grow, according to Andreas Schneider of Stahlmarkt Consult.

At the recent beams and sections conference organised by German steel distributors’ federation BDS, Schneider revealed that the stockholders’ share in the business is continuing to fall. In 2017, sales from stockholders were at around 1.1 million tonnes, which is -8% below the level of 2014, and a considerable -27% less than in 2007. This trend is in clear contrast with the rising production index of Germany’s industries, the analyst said at the conference attended by Kallanish.

It is also in marked contrast with the main domestic section producers Salzgitter, ArcelorMittal and Stahlwerk Thüringen, where production levels have remained stable and strong over the last four years.  Overall market supply has continued to grow since 2013, following the year-long decline after the financial crisis.

One cause of this imbalance is an increase in export from and imports into Germany, both of which rose simultaneously by around 7% from 2015 to 2017. Exports continue to exceed imports, to the tune of 1.5 million tonnes of the former versus 1.05mt of the latter.  Imports come mainly from EU neighbours, with Luxembourg supplying the lion’s share.

Another explanation for the fall in business at stockists is that more mills are supplying end-users directly. Many sections are also actually processed and sold by stockholders as structural components, and as such disappear from the statistics. That would mean higher added value for the stockholder, despite a decline in the tonnage of unfabricated sections sold.

Ayer día 12 de Junio se celebró la Asamblea General de la Unión de Almacenistas de Hierros de España en Madrid en la que se ratificó por unanimidad la elección de los nuevos Presidente y Vicepresidente, D.  Roberto González (Tirso CSA) y D. Fernando Moraga (Grupo Hierros Alfonso).

D. Roberto González, ha sido Vicepresidente de la asociación durante el último año, y forma parte de la Junta Directiva desde el año 2013. El nuevo Presidente agradeció a D. Juan Carlos Núñez (Hierros y Aceros García Cía) su gran labor al frente de la asociación, manifestó su propósito de dar continuidad a los proyectos iniciados durante su mandato, y explicó algunos de los objetivos de la presidencia para los próximos cuatro años: extender “aguas abajo” la digitalización, proporcionar formación al sector, trabajar en la potenciación del uso del acero, aumentar el número de asociados y empoderar a la Unión de Almacenistas, son algunos de ellos.

Konsorcjum Stali (KS) increased sales 16.4% on-year in the first quarter to 178,000 tonnes, boosted by a 26.1% rise in Poland’s building and construction sector output, Kallanish learns from the Polish distributor and fabricator.

First-quarter revenue rose 28% to PLN 461.06 million ($127.1m) and net profit grew 5% to PLN 11.45m.

Despite the 2-3% annual growth forecast for Polish steel consumption in the coming years, and 1.9% EU consumption growth in 2018, the threat remains of a global trade war stemming from US 232 tariffs, KS observes.

In 2017 KS increased sales 5% on-year to 639,000t (see Kallanish passim). This was driven by a 7% rise in traded product sales to 398,000t. Rebar sales rose 15% to 168,000t, but sheet deliveries fell -6.8% to 69,000t. Z and G sections sales were flat at 60,000t. Sales of KS-produced or processed products, meanwhile, rose 3.4% to 241,000t.

At an industry meeting in Poland last month KS chief executive Janusz Smolka said Polish construction projects should go ahead despite the increasing number of construction firm bankruptcies.

Steel shipments from European service centers and stockholders rose year on year in April, while stocks gradually fell to normal levels, the European Federation of Steel, Tubes and Metals Distribution & Trade (EUROMETAL) said Wednesday.

Shipments at flat steel service centers in April rose 7.3% year on year.

While EUROMETAL does not specify volumes, the association releases an index for stock levels with the average of 2015 equivalent to 100. On this basis, stock levels at European flat steel distribution centers dropped to 110 in April from 121 in the same month last year, indicating lower volumes from last year, though nevertheless slightly elevated.

“After quite some overstocking in late 2017, mainly in coated products, stocks of EU SSC are now closely back to normal,” EUROMETAL said.

Shipments at multi-product distributors in April rose 8.5% year on year. The stock volume index stood at 101 in April, down slightly from 102 in the same month last year.

The data coincides with the latest stock volumes at German steel distributors. As reported, inventories of flat steel products at German stockholders and distributors in April fell to their lowest level so far this year, down 6.3% year on year at 1.45 million mt, according to figures from German stockholders association, BDS. Long product stocks in Germany also declined, but not as heavily as flat steel, falling 4.5% year on year to 879,715 mt.

Laura Varriale, PLATTS

Activity at European flats steel service centres (SSC) and multi-product distributors rose significantly in April compared with the same month of 2017, Kallanish learns from EUROMETAL.

Shipments by SSC moved up 7.3% y-o-y in April alone. Overall shipments during the first four months of the year remained stable compared with the same period of 2017, the European distributors’ association notes.

SSC also showed slight re-stocking activity during the period as stocks returned to 72 days’ worth of sales. In April last year these were calculated at 82 days’ worth of sales.

Meanwhile shipments from multi-products distributors also jumped 8.5% y-o-y in April. Overall aggregated shipments in the first four months of 2018 have been 0.7% higher than last year. Stocks in April meanwhile reached 80 days’ worth of sales, compared with 87 days’ worth of sales in April 2017.