Year: 2018

Spanish automotive component producer Gestamp has expanded its operations in the United Kingdom by opening a new manufacturing plant in Four Ashes in the West Midlands, Kallanish learns from the company.

“The new plant is more efficient and competitive, with opportunity for further growth,” says Gestamp ceo Francisco Riberas. “We will continue to provide our customers with the latest technologies…. We are already supporting them with the challenges that they face with electrical vehicles by providing lighter and safer solutions,” he adds.

The new unit includes one of the biggest hot stamping lines with completely innovative technology, Gestamp continues. The plant will also manufacture aluminium parts in an innovative transfer servo press, including battery boxes for electrical vehicles. The equipment will comprise laser cells for cutting and welding.

The investment amounts to £50 million ($65.6m) and could increase on future projects. Gestamp will move its production progressively from the Cannock plant to the new mill, thus conserving the 800 current jobs, the company says.

Gestamp owns seven production plants in the UK. The company has invested more than £200 million in the region since 2012.

The West Midlands` facility is the fifth plant that Gestamp has opened worldwide in 2018.

Sheet press maker Schuler and carmaker Porsche have joined up to build what they say will be an innovative press shop for the car factory of the future, Kallanish learns from the partners.

The objective of the two German groups is to create a so-called smart press shop as part of a networked Industry 4.0 approach. The new press shop’s pioneering technologies will enable the highly flexible production of complex car body parts, they say.

The systematic further development of process know-how in the field of metal forming will be achieved in part by the end-to-end networking of production data and the use of machine learning. Porsche and Schuler aim to set new standards in the field of predictive maintenance and intelligent production control.

The joint venture will operate as an independent company held in equal proportions by each company. Each partner will invest a double-digit million-euro amount in the joint venture. Over 100 highly skilled jobs are to be created.

The Executive Board reports on the development of the business volume as of August 2018 as follows: The excellent business performance in the reporting period already led to the EUR 2.0 billion mark being exceeded in August. At EUR 2,021.6 million, the business volume was exceeded by EUR 420.2 million or 26.2% compared with the previous year. The number of specialist retail partners has also been increased by 50 compared with 31.12.2017 to now 1,052 retail partners.

Development of business volume with regard to the business areas:

The Steel business unit generated a business volume of EUR 802.4 million in August, exceeding the previous year’s figure by 32.7%. The positive development continues to result, in equal parts, from an increase in the tonnage sold and a higher price level compared with the previous year. In the Construction-Crafts Industry Division, the previous year’s figure of EUR 745.7 million was also significantly exceeded by 25.6%. The development in the Domestic Engineering business area also continues to be positive. Although the overall development, with a business volume of EUR 122.3 million in August, is 9.2% below the previous year’s level. However, excluding the former retail partners and based on existing customers and new acquisitions, the division is able to improve on the previous year by 12.6%.

Thyssenkrupp Schulte Tuesday said it will invest Eur60 million ($70 million) in the construction of a new logistics center in Rotenburg in the German state of Lower Saxony.

A purchase agreement for a 100,000 square meter industrial site has been signed with construction set to be completed in summer 2019 and the center fully operational by 2021.

The state of the art facility will absorb existing warehouses in nearby Bremen and Hamburg, bringing combined storage capacity to 18,000 mt of aluminum, stainless steel and carbon steel.

Len Griffin

Konsorcjum Stali (KS) has retained top spot in the Polish Union of Steel Distributors (PUDS) ranking of top-performing Polish steel distributors in 2017, monitored by Kallanish.

KS shipped the most steel of any distributor last year at 639,000 tonnes – up from 606,000t in 2016 – and reported the highest revenue at PLN 1.52 billion ($408.34 million). However, it came second in terms of net profit with PLN 42.4m.

KS has three reinforcement fabrication plants with a combined capacity of 15,000 tonnes/month. It also has two steel structures plants and a coil service centre. This is in addition to 13 sales offices across Poland.

Bowim remained second in terms of tonnage sold with 453,000t, up from 394,000t in 2016, and third in revenue terms with PLN 1.12 billion. However, it slipped four places to seventh in net profit terms with PLN 18.77m.

Stalprofil remained third in tonnage terms with 319,000t, up from 277,000t in 2016, and rose one place to fourth in revenue terms with PLN 1.03 billion. It also jumped from 18th to fifth in net profit terms with PLN 24.42m

Grupa Pruszynski moved up one place to fourth in tonnage terms with 238,000t, up from 228,000t in 2016. It was second and first in terms of revenue and net profit with PLN 1.28 billion and PLN 67.77m respectively.

Serwistal was fifth in tonnage terms with 210,000t, up from 200,000t a year earlier. It came seventh and fourth in terms of revenue and net profit with PLN 537.95m and PLN 27.98m respectively.

BUDMAT Bogdan Wiecek, fourth-largest distributor in each category in 2016, did not appear in the 2017 ranking.

Shipments by EU steel service centres (SSC) fell year-on-year in July 2018, European steel distributors’ association Eurometal tells Kallanish. By contrast, despatched material from EU Multi-Product & Proximity Steel Stockholding distributors grew sharply in the month.

In July 2018, shipments of EU SSC distribution dropped by -3.1 % when compared with July 2017, the association confirms. For the first seven months of 2018, year-to-date shipments also fell in total y-o-y by -2.2%. After witnessing relatively high inventories at the turn of the year, mainly in coated products, stocks at EU SSC have now returned to normal.

When expressed in days of shipments, stocks at EU SSC averaged in July 2018 at 70 days, compared to 71 days in July 2017. For same month, the stock volumes’ index moved from 116 in July 2017 to 114 in July 2018 (average 2015=index 100).

EU Multi-Product & Proximity Steel Stockholding Distribution meanwhile noted significantly higher shipments for most of its product portfolio, Eurometal says. Only rebar has noted a slight decrease in sales. Total shipments from this segment rose by 7.5% y-o-y. For the first seven months therefore material shipped rose, but more modestly, by 1.0% on-year.

The stock volumes’ index at EU Multi-Product & Proximity Steel Stockholding Distribution rose to 105 in July 2018, compared to 101 one year before. When expressed in days of shipments, stock volumes in July 2018 came in at 78 days of shipments, compared with 83 days in July 2017.

The UK’s National Association of Steel Service Centers (NASS) said Monday it will appoint Michael Horan of Liberty Performance Steels (LPS) as president of the trade body at its upcoming October annual general meeting.

Horan, managing director of LPS, is a veteran of the industry with 30 years of experience.

NASS Director General Peter Corfield said: “NASS is delighted that Michael will be taking on the presidency role… and we look forward to him consolidating and building on the professional foundation that has been developed in recent years.”

NASS represents steel service centers in the UK that collectively handle around 3 million mt/year.

Len Griffin, PLATTS

Despite the background of international political interference, Germany’s stockholders saw good business for most the first half of 2018, with most customer groups reporting high levels of activity, according to distributors’ federation BDS.

In the first five months of the year, sales of rolled products totalled 4.8 million tonnes, and were 1.5% higher than in the corresponding period in 2017. The growth in the tube and pipe sector was even higher, says BDS chief economist Jörg Feger. May however saw a slight year-on-year dip to 948,000t, attributable to a lower number of working days.

At the end of May, the inventory level stood at 2.4mt, 0.5% up y-o-y. This translated to a days-of-sale value of 75 days.  According to an unofficial source, June has also seen an increase to 950,000t of products sold, and a slight reduction of stock levels. “… so, there is no overstocking,” Feger tells Kallanish.

Regarding prices, BDS reports that there was an upswing in June, following a period of inconsistency between March and May. In comparison with June 2017, the price premium for long products and pipes is more pronounced than for flat products, the federation says.

German steel distributor Kicherer is nearing completion of a new building at its site in Ellwangen, southwestern Germany, which will be equipped with special high-bay racking.

Completion of all work, which began one year ago, and the start of operations is expected for October, managing director Eberhard Frick tells Kallanish. The new high-bay racking will be used for mainly long products up to six metres length, and is supplied by Kasto, as are six existing storage facilities at Kicherer.

Kasto’s system will have a height of 15m and a length of 115m, with some 10,000 storage cassettes with a capacity of 3.4 tonnes each. It is laid out to give the most flexible availability, with carriage vehicles on rails transporting the goods at up to 180m/minute to 25 loading points.

The main intention of the investment is faster handling of products. Up to now, one truck needs to transit through seven workshops and needs 75 minutes to be charged. The target is to bring down the loading time to under one hour. The company has an annual turnover of 210,000 tonnes of flat and long products, “… and if this can be expanded remains to be seen” when the new workspace is operating normally, Frick says.

Northern European steel service centers are finding themselves in a “sandwich position,” faced with higher coil prices from mills but with limited scope to pass these on to end-customers, sources said Wednesday.

Service center sources said competition is fierce with some offers below current replacement costs, making it difficult to lift prices in discussions with customers.

“Sales prices at service centers are not going up, that is a problem. There are replacement cost issues,” said a German service center source.

A Belgian service center source said that they were having difficulties moving prices up due to some competitors offering as low as Eur555/mt ($643/mt) ex-warehouse for hot-rolled coil to end-customers.

With current prices of around Eur565/mt ex-works Ruhr for HRC, no attractive import offers as an alternative source of material and northern European mills now starting to push for Eur575-580/mt ex-works for Q4, the stockholding and distribution sector is already struggling to maintain a margin if they do not have older material on stock.

“It’s brutal competition resulting from a surplus of service centers,” said a German mill source. “There are always some big industrial customers that beat prices down in negotiations and there is always one service center that says, ‘OK. There’s no margin for us but better than no business at all,'” the mill source added.

The latest data from the German stockholder association BDS showed that inventories of flat steel increased in June for the first time since March, growing 2.5% to 1.47 million mt from May. Sources said that the coming weeks should show whether some service centers will continue to drop selling prices.

Demand is expected to pick up with the market returning from holidays.

Laura Varriale, PLATTS