Month: December 2018

The European steel distributor’s association EUROMETAL tells Kallanish that it has elected a new president. The organisation will also have a new director general in 2019 as Georges Kirps intends to step down from his position at the end of the first quarter.

The new president is Fernando Espada, ceo of Tata Steel Distribution Spain. He will succeed Jens Lauber, who has taken on new functions inside Tata Steel Europe, EUROMETAL says. The association has also elected a new presidency board for a new term of three years comprising 11 other distribution sector senior executives.

Georges Kirps will be leaving his position as director general of the association on 31 March 2019. His successor in the role as from 1 April 2019 is Daniel Guinabert, who has participated in the governance of EUROMETAL as a presidency member for the past three years.

During last EUROMETAL General Assembly in IJmuiden, EUROMETAL debated and decided its strategic orientation for the next three years.

The key topics of EUROMETAL’s future strategic orientation are best summarized by the following chart:

The aforementioned trends become more visible in combination with already well-known cycles in steel business; business becomes more complex by global trends and new technologies. Finally, Distribution/SSC/Trading business are forced to enhance the value chain of steel to all stakeholders in these conditions of rapid change.

Companies with pan European and global focus are organising these trends already in their day-to-day business, partly massively. Question is when will local business also be impacted?

In its research and development of official positions, EUROMETAL plans to focus on these above mentioned global trends and their potential impact on the European Distribution/SSC/Traders business. It will be done in contact with international business groups and associations, by organising international events and communication to share experiences and expectations and by lobbying in cooperation with comparable associations.

All members of EUROMETAL including National Associations will benefit by the outcome of these activities. They can adopt it in their specific business models or regional programs. The more members are attending these activities the more they can influence direction and speed. It creates tailored-made and high added value for all involved stakeholders.

EUROMETAL General Assembly, convened on 6. December 2018, elected Fernando Espada, CEO of Tata Steel Distribution Spain, as new president of the European representation of steel stockholders, SSC and trade.

Fernando will succeed to Jens Lauber, who has taken new functions inside Tata Steel Europe.

Furthermore, EUROMETAL elected a new Presidency board for a new term of three years.

Besides Fernando Espada as president, the new EUROMETAL Presidency will be composed of the following members:

Roberto Gonzalez, UAHE and TIRSO, Spain
Fabrice Guazzoni, AMDS, Luxembourg
Tayfun Iseri, YISAD & COLAKOGLU, Turkey
Michel Julien-Vauzelle, FFDM, France
Alexander Julius, MACROMETAL, Germany
Robert Kay, FERONA, Czech Republic
Thomas Niederhofer, KNAUF INTERFER, Germany
Mikael Nyquist, TIBNOR, Sweden
Norbert Thumfart, ARGE-SMD & WEYLAND, Austria
Julian Verden, STEMCOR, United Kingdom
Lorenzo Biagi, MARCEGAGLIA, Italy

Finally, EUROMETAL General Assembly was informed that after 15 years at the helm of EUROMETAL, Director General Georges Kirps has announced that he will will leave his functions on coming 31st of March 2019.

To succeed Georges, Daniel Guinabert will step in as new Director General, effective on 1st of April 2019. During last three years, Daniel participated in the governance of EUROMETAL  as a Presidency member.

Hans Kohler, EUROMETAL Treasurer for the last 20 years, has informed that he will stop his Treasurer mandate. Hans will be replaced as EUROMETAL Treasurer by Andreas Steffes, manager at Swiss distribution federation SSHV.

In October shipments from European steel service centres dropped again compared to October 2017, continuing the negative trend seen since summer, Kallanish learns from EUROMETAL data. Multi products distributors, on the other hand, saw sales increase.

Overall in October, shipments were down -2% year-on-year. The figure for the first ten months of the year therefore remained negative; down -2.4% y-o-y.

While the service centres’ fall was mainly linked to the decline of demand from the automotive sector, multi-products distributors, on the other hand, saw sales moving up.

Shipments from general steel distributors increased 8.4% y-o-y in October; in the ten months they remained 1.1% above the same period of 2017.

German rail freight operator DB Cargo has introduced 965 more wagons for steel transportation this year to ease the general wagon shortage against the backdrop of stubborn logistical problems on water, road and rail that steel industry sources do not expect to be solved even though water levels on the Rhine have started to rise again.

DB Cargo’s plan was initially to add 750 more wagons for steel in the course of the year, but this has been increased to 965, which are already in use, DB Cargo told S&P Global Platts Monday.

The operator has also introduced 10 additional weekly coal trains from Rotterdam to Germany this month which have the capacity to transport 2,700 mt per train.

German steel and raw material shipments have been badly hit by low water levels on the Rhine amid a general shortage of rail wagons and trucks to transport steel since summer this year.

“Logistics companies have saved money for years and now there’s a shortage on everything. Around 80% of wagons have been rationalized,” a buyer in southern Germany said.

The buyer added that there has only been a little rain in southern Germany and that there were issues with the Danube as well as with rail routes between Western and Eastern Europe and a lack of paths for trains.

A German mill source told Platts that it works with private rail freight companies now to limit the ‘dependency’ on DB Cargo. But as Deutsche Bahn has the monopoly on rail infrastructure, “you can’t go without them.”

Due to rain over the weekend, water levels have come back to 1.86 meters at Duisburg-Ruhrort Monday, up from critically low 1.57 meters in the beginning of last week.

The Federal Institute for Hydrology expects low water levels to continue into at least the first half of December despite the rise at the beginning of this week, which would nevertheless improve logistics along the river.

“I think water levels will normalize in April when we have had snowfall,” a Ruhr-based trader said.

“We are issuing offers with the term ‘with today’s valid freight price’,” the trader said as cargo prices from Antwerp to Duisburg have risen steadily.

Laura Varriale

Spanish steel group Network Steel expects to start work in February converting the former site of wind turbine maker, Vestas, in Leon, Spain into a 520,000 mt/year steel plant, a company spokesman told S&P Global Platts.

Network Steel will spend Eur130 million ($148 million) on refit work at the complex, which should run from February 2019 through December 2020 and would include two cold-rolled mills, two galvanized coil lines and a continuous pickling line, the spokesman said Thursday.

The investment is more than the Eur110 million initially anticipated by Spain’s Industry Ministry, while the conversion and eventual production should re-employ many of the current workers at the site, which was slated in October to be shuttered.

The company did not disclose how much it paid Vestas to purchase the site.

The new lines should complement Network Steel’s existing business, which includes a 100,000 mt/year plant in Burgos for painted coils and strips, a 120,000 mt/year pre-painted and pickling line.

The Ministry said it would support the conversion by ensuring improved transport infrastructure to service the site, including a rail connection to the country’s principal port, while there is also the possibility of public financing for the site conversion.

Gianluca Baratti

Die Rhenus-Gruppe hat zum 1. Oktober die Spedition SBL Importverkehrslogistik aus Ratingen erworben. Das Unternehmen bietet Import- und Exportlogistikdienstleistungen an und ist insbesondere auf Transporte per Schiff, Bahn und Lkw sowie Komplettlösungen im Stahlbereich spezialisiert.

die baustellen -_stahl haustechnikhandelstag

Unter dem Motto «Der Handel vor neuen Herausforderungen» lud der Schweizerische Stahl- und Haustechnikhandels- verband SSHV zum Stahl- und Haustechnikhandelstag ins See- damm Plaza nach Pfäffikon SZ.

Rund 120 Teilnehmende besuch-ten den Event, an dem sich die Branche gemeinsam mit zahl-
reichen Servicepartnern und Zu-lieferern präsentierte. Christoph

Weber, CEO der Arthur Weber AG und SSHV-Präsident, begrüsste die Gäste. Anschliessend folgten

die Vorträge von Martin Kauf-mann, CEO der Firma Meier Tob-ler, zu unternehmerischen Heraus-
forderungen sowie von Diana Gutjahr, Mitinhaberin der Ernst Fischer AG. Eric Scheidegger, stell-
vertretender Direktor des Seco, nahm die Anwesenden schliesslic mit auf eine wirtschaftspolitische Rundreise. (hz)