Infoacero noviembre 2018

En el siguiente enlace pueden acceder a la edición de Noviembre de nuestra revista Infoacero: Infoacero noviembre 2018

A continuación destacamos algunos de sus contenidos:

Opinión – D. José López de Diego – Presidente Zona III y Miembro de Junta Directiva de la UAHE.

Evolución del Índice de Precios de Productos Siderúrgicos – UAHE.

Asesoría Legal  Responsabilidad por la estiba de la mercancía en el transporte terrestre– D. Javier Edo Soler, Asesor Legal UAHE.

Previsión de Eurofer sobre el mercado del acero en 2018 y 2019 (Informe del 4º trimestre Eurofer).

Colaboración ASCEM: Resumen de  Construtec y Foro Pro Construcción en Acero, 13 al 16 de noviembre, Madrid.

Network Steel plans new HDG plant in Spain

Spanish trading and industrial group, Network Steel, is set to build a brand new galvanising mill for coil, Kallanish learns from sources. It will do so in the plant newly-acquired from wind-power company Vestas in the north of Spain.

Works at the plant will start in February 2019 and production is expected to be initiated by the end of that year.

The new mill is expected to have a capacity of 520,000 tonnes/year of galvanised coils when it reaches its full potential at the end of 2020. With an investment of €130 million ($146.6m) the new plant will have a pickling line, two cold rolling lines and two galvanising lines.

Network Steel currently controls three production units, Aranda Coated, Santander Coated and Todoaceros, dedicated to the output of coil. The group is also one of the largest traders of steel products in Spain and recently acquired the service centre company Plafesa.

Contribution of Steel Distribution & SSC to the value chain of steel

EUROMETAL is proud to announce, that it has finalized a new White Paper regarding the contribution of steel distribution, SSC & Trade to the value chain of steel.

This new EUROMETAL White Paper is based on contributions by external experts, senior professionals of steel distribution, SSC & Trade, comments received during EUROMETAL regional meetings and by market research done by EUROMETAL management.

The White paper encompasses 64 chart pages and divides into following chapters:

– The Systemic position of Steel Distribution & SSC in the Steel Value Chain

– The Many Aspects of Product & Service Offer by Steel Distribution and SSC

– The Key Role of Customer Experience in  Steel Distribution & SSC

– Contributing Customized Logistics to Steel End Users

– The Impact of Digitalization and Industry 4.0.

– An Outlook on Steel Distribution & SSC Business Models to Create Steel Value

– The Challenges of Pricing for Value

– Other Challenges, Issues and Questions Marks facing the Future of Steel Distribution, SSC and Trade

EUROMETAL members may download the White Paper at the member login area “Knowledge Center“.

Non members may access the White Paper by going to the e-bookshop.

 

Auto contracts talks underway; most still unfinished

Automotive steel supply contract negotiations are well underway in northern Europe, with mills asking for price increases, although many negotiators have yet to reach a compromise, market sources told S&P Global Platts Tuesday.

For HRC, most sources said that northern European mills were asking for around Eur20/mt more, with some at Eur10/mt more for cold-rolled coil and hot-dip galvanized sheet versus last year’s annual or semi-annual contracts, which were based on current spot price levels or slightly lower.

Current spot levels for the Platts TSI daily index were calculated at Eur548.50/mt ex-works Ruhr Tuesday for HRC, Eur620/mt ex-works Ruhr Tuesday for CRC and at Eur644/mt ex-works Ruhr Friday for the weekly HDG (base substrate) index.

“We offered +20-30/mt to OEMs on contracts, but they weren’t excited. I think negotiations are gonna be tough,” said a source at one tier-1 mill.

However, sources remain skeptical about whether mills can achieve increases or would have to settle for rollovers.

“Problem is that distribution/auto suppliers see falling prices because they look at the spot market and think they can get that in long-term contracts,” said the mill source.

A mill-side source said that raw material prices on top of high alloy costs would warrant asking for contract price increases.

Another source close to a European mill said he expects negotiations to take a long time, but that those who need first quarter material are buying.

Some contracts in the UK have, however, been agreed with volumes for first half 2019 supply settled at +£10-15/mt above 2018 contracts base price, a tier-1 mill source confirmed to S&P Global Platts. The contract agreements come amid increasing concern for the UK car industry as the Jaguar Land Rover Castle Bromwich assembly plant works a three-day week until January.

Meanwhile, European buyers are waiting for price direction from mills, while keeping a close eye on the import market. “Car negotiations are paralyzing everything, mills don’t want to emerge from their hole,” said a German service center source.

“Messages from [the trade fair] Euroblech were missing, lots of people came that wanted direction but that didn’t come,” the source added.

Laura Varriale and Len Griffin

Higher prices boost Bowim earnings, warehouse nears commissioning

Bowim’s average sales prices rose 11% on-year in the third quarter, helping consolidated revenue grow 11% to PLN 327.9 million ($86.5m). However, net profit fell -18% to PLN 2.87m due to higher cost of sales, Kallanish learns from the Polish distributor.

Construction of Bowim’s new 4,000-tonne capacity high-bay warehouse in Sosnowiec has been completed and it is now in the process of obtaining certificates for its machinery. It will also install a cut-to-length line and railway siding at a later stage.

In the nine months through September sales rose 11% on-year to 376,795 tonnes. This was partly thanks to the Sosnowiec logistics-distribution centre modernisation, as well as the commissioning of subsidiary Bowim Podkarpacie’s new warehouse distribution centre near Rzeszow. Revenue increased 21% on-year to PLN 1.01 billion, but net profit fell -23% to PLN 10.37m.

Nine-month sheet sales rose 6% to 119,323t, pipe and profile sales grew 14% to 81,800t and rebar shipments increased 36% to 72,532t. Sales to the steel structures sector generated 22% of revenue versus 23% a year earlier, but the construction sector generated 20% versus 18%. The share of trade in revenue remained at 19%. Imports accounted for 32% of the firm’s purchases versus 34% a year earlier.

Stalprofil raises sales, anticipates new Gaz-System investments

Stalprofil increased sales 17% on-year in the third quarter to 65,000 tonnes. This was supported by modernised logistics facilities that increased handling capacity at its Dabrowa Gornicza and Krakow sites, as well as strong operations at fabricator subsidiary Kolb,Kallanish learns from the Polish distributor.

The firm’s infrastructure segment, which supplies pipe and services to the gas industry, recorded the largest revenue increase, driven mainly by sales to Gaz-System as part of a consortium with subsidiary Izostal. The consortium has taken part in supplying 620km out of the framework agreement signed in 2015 for 766km of pipeline. This show’s Stalprofil’s competitiveness versus the other ten consortiums from Europe and Asia that are qualified to supply Gaz System, the firm says.

Stalprofil’s steel segment revenue rose 21% on-year in Q3 to PLN 185.5 million ($49.1m) but gross profit fell -4% to PLN 15.8m due to increased cost of sales. Infrastructure segment revenue surged 175% to PLN 238.3m and gross profit soared 186% to PLN 24.2m. Consolidated revenue thus rose 76% to PLN 423.8m and net profit rose 14% to PLN 10.6m.

In the coming months Gaz-System is expected to launch its third round of investment that will see the construction of around 2,000km of pipeline between 2019 and 2028.

Stalprofil’s steel sales in the nine months through September rose 5% on-year to 172,251t, while steel structures sales grew 23% to 2,307t. Nine-month revenue increased 28% to PLN 1.09 billion and net profit grew 43% to PLN 25.5m.

Bottlenecks persist on German waterways

Germany’s waterways still have some way to go to recover from the water shortage that has prevailed since summer. While most steel producers have got a grip on their transports, the situation for oil transports has worsened.

Thyssenkrupp and ArcelorMittal declared force majeure at their Duisburg mills about a month ago, but later gave the all-clear. Rainfalls in the region have nevertheless remained sparse, Kallanish notes.

While thyssenkrupp states that it has secured a sufficient number of Rhine vessels with lower draught that can operate at low water levels, ArcelorMittal concedes that the situation is far from ideal. “Ships can go only with reduced loads, which causes delays,” it says in a statement. “If things do not improve, we need to divert more to alternative means of transport like rail to guarantee supply safety.”

A spokeswoman for Saarland’s mills says the low Rhine level “…keeps posing challenges regarding raw materials supply as well as dispatch of products, because the number of inland vessels and their load capacities is strongly limited.” Still, supply as well as dispatch are safeguarded, “…although we have to be prepared for the situation to last.”

Last weekend the government of North Rhine Westphalia issued an exceptional driving permission for tank truck on Sundays, and tank ships were no longer able to call at the refineries around Cologne.

Spain’s Network Steel expands further with new acquisition

Network Steel, the Spanish trading and industrial group, has agreed to acquire the former plant of Vestas in northern Spain. It will further expand its production of flat steel products, Kallanish learns from sources.

Vestas, the Danish supplier of components for wind turbines, announced earlier this year the decision to close its Spanish plant in the region of Leon. Network Steel is now set to take over the plant and invest in it up to €110 million ($124.7m) to convert the unit for the processing of flat steel products.

The relaunch of the unit will start in early January and is set to create up to 350 jobs.

Network Steel already controls three production units in Spain, dedicated to flat steel products. Recently the group also took over control of Plafesa and its two service centres in Spain and Portugal, as reported.

Strong Chinese growth drives global crude steel output

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) says that global crude steel output from its 64 reporting countries was 156.6 million tonnes in October 2018, up 5.8% year-on-year, Kallanish notes. China produced 82.6mt in the month, a hike of 9.1% on October 2017 and still clearly well over half of the world’s crude steel output.

Total October crude steel production In the EU28 was flat y-o-y at 14.8mt (-0.4%). Estimated output in Germany rose by 1.4% y-on-y to 3.6mt. Monthly production also grew slightly y-on-y in Italy by 1.1% to 2.3mt. French crude steel output fell back on-year however in October by -3.5% to 1.3mt. Spanish output also fell, but more heavily by -7.4% to 1.3mt, same comparison.

Crude steel production in India in October rose y-o-y by just 0.4% to 8.5mt whilst that of Japan was 8.6mt, down by -4.5%% from October 2017. South Korean production rose by 3.5% y-o-y during the month to 6.2mt.

US crude steel output was 7.6mt in October 2018, an on-year increase of 10.5%, whilst in Brazil crude steel production was an estimated 3.1mt, up by 3.0% on the prior-year period.

Russian estimated production was 6.0mt in the month, up by 0.4% on-year. Ukraine’s output also fell meanwhile to 1.8mt, down by -6.7%, same basis.

Turkey’s crude steel production for October 2018 was 3.2mt, a decrease of -4.3% compared to October 2017.

For antitrust reasons worldsteel no longer produces a monthly global capacity utilisation ratio. Information on capacity can be found on the OECD website, worldsteel says.

thyssenkrupp Schulte co-develops new component with Siemens

thyssenkrupp Schulte, the German steel distribution unit within thyssenkrupp Materials Service, says it has helped to improve the supply chain of Siemens’ Energy division with new product development. This includes the application of a new hinged armature for high-voltage lines, developed in cooperation with thyssenkrupp Steel, it says in a statement.

The hinged armatures installed in the Siemens circuit breakers are stamped for immediate use and produced by thyssenkrupp Steel Europe to customer specifications from coated so-called Pladur strip, Kallanish learns from tk Schulte. Up to now, these armatures had been manufactured from untreated strip and then given a special coating. The long-term contract covers several tonnes of strip shipped annually from the Nuremberg Logistics Centre JIT to Siemens.

In order to precisely determine Siemens requirements, the technical and quality details were defined during a visit to the customer together with technologists from tk Steel, Gerald Mulot of tk Schulte explains. “With the use of the Pladur strip that already possesses a defined surface coating we have been able to optimise for Siemens the time-consuming and costly process and achieve our objective of stamping the end product directly from the coated metal,” he says.