Der Stahlmarkt in Polen und Tschechien

Sheffield – MEPS International verzeichnete in diesem Monat in Polen einen allgemeinen Preisverfall bei Stahlprodukten. Die Rabatte aus den Mühlen haben jedoch wenig dazu beigetragen, die Kaufaktivität anzukurbeln. Viele Kunden verzögern Einkäufe, da sie über ausreichende Lagerbestände verfügen, um ihren aktuellen Bedarf zu decken.

Stahlhersteller arbeiten immer noch mit geringer Kapazitätsauslastung, wobei weniger Vorbestellungen für Lieferungen im Juni und Juli aufgegeben werden. Die Vorlaufzeiten für warmgewalzte Coils liegen derzeit bei etwa vier Wochen, für kaltgewalzte und feuerverzinkte Coils bei knapp sechs Wochen.

Mitte Mai zeigten sich Anzeichen für eine Verbesserung der polnischen Stahlnachfrage. Positiv ist die Wiedereröffnung der Automobilwerke, es wird jedoch erwartet, dass der Betrieb unter dem normalen Niveau beginnt. Die Nachfrage in der Bauindustrie bleibt relativ gut, der Bergbausektor zeigt Anzeichen einer Wiederbelebung. Der Weißwarenmarkt erlebt dagegen einen Abschwung.

Unternehmen, die mit hochspezifizierten Stahlsorten handeln, weisen eine stabile Nachfrage auf. Unternehmen, die Vertragskunden beliefern, berichten von relativ unberührten Vorgängen und normalen Verkäufen im Mai.

Viele Stahlhändler hoffen, dass sich die Marktaktivität in den kommenden Monaten beschleunigen wird, da nun die Sperrbeschränkungen aufgehoben werden. Trotz des vorläufigen Optimismus verstärken sich allerdings finanzielle Bedenken. Zahlreiche Versicherer überprüfen die Kreditlimits, die sie Unternehmen gewähren. Die Kreditlinien werden reduziert und die Versicherungskosten steigen. Dies hat das Potenzial, die Stahleinkaufsaktivität kurzfristig zu drücken.

Stahllager in der Tschechischen Republik halten sich bei Bestellungen zurück

In der Tschechischen Republik gingen die Stahlpreise im Mai aufgrund der geringeren Nachfrage und der wachsenden Verfügbarkeit von günstigem importiertem Material zurück. Die tschechischen Stahlhersteller produzieren weit unter der maximalen Kapazität und zögern, Preise weiter zu senken. Trotzdem konnten viele Kunden in der letzten Zeit Rabatte von Stahllieferanten aushandeln.

Die tschechischen Stahllager melden überdurchschnittliche Lagerbestände, diese gelten jedoch nicht als übermäßig. Viele Kunden verzögern derzeit ihre Bestellungen.

Obwohl die Produktion auf niedrigem Niveau liegen wird, haben Unternehmen im Automobilbereich entweder wiedereröffnet oder sind dabei, neu zu starten. In der Bauindustrie finden nach wie vor Aktivitäten statt und Arbeiten an bestehenden Projekten werden fortgesetzt.

Wie im benachbarten Polen sind die tschechischen Stahlmarktteilnehmer optimistisch, dass sich die Geschäftsbedingungen in naher Zukunft verbessern werden.

Über MEPS

MEPS International Ltd. ist ein führendes Stahlmarktanalyseunternehmen, das sich auf unabhängig untersuchte globale Stahlpreise, -indizes und -prognosen spezialisiert hat. Das Unternehmen wurde 1979 von Peter Fish gegründet und begann als Beratungsunternehmen mit dem Namen Management, Engineering and Production Services in Sheffield – daher auch der Name MEPS. In den späten 1980er Jahren wurde das Unternehmen in MEPS Europe Ltd. umbenannt, im Juli 2001 wurde daraus MEPS International Ltd., um die weltweite Abdeckung seiner Stahlpreisforschung widerzuspiegeln.

Der MEPS International Steel Review ist eine wichtige monatliche Veröffentlichung, die professionelle Analysen und Einblicke in die weltweiten Kohlenstoffstahlpreise bietet.

Quelle: MEPS International Ltd.  / Vorschaubild: fotolia

Metals Service Center Institute calls for infrastructure investment

The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) is calling upon US Senate members for the passing of shovel-ready infrastructure investment legislature, Kallanish reports.

Expecting bleak results from US and Canadian employment reports in May, the MSCI “… believes one way to ensure a quicker rebound is for local and national, and state and provincial, leaders to focus on shovel-ready infrastructure,” the organisation says in an e-mail update.

The MSCI goes on to add that infrastructure investment is paramount in minimising the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the industrial metals supply chain.

“American infrastructure in particular has been crumbling for years. It is time to rebuild,” says ceo Bob Weidner.

In January, Democratic members of the US House of Representative introduced a five-year, $760 billion infrastructure plan that garnered support from organisations such as the United Steelworkers labour union.

US President Donald Trump has called for infrastructure spending, as well.

“With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, [sic] this is the time to do our decades long-awaited Infrastructure Bill… It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, [sic] and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country!” President Trump writes on Twitter.

Europe’s steel market recovery could start in June: Marcegaglia

European steel consumption could start a slow recovery in June, Antonio Marcegaglia, CEO of Marcegaglia Group, the world’s largest welded tube producer and one of the world’s largest steel re-rollers, told S&P Global Platts Friday.

“It is likely that we will see a restart in the demand triggered by restoking and sustained by the European mills cuts and EU imports duties politics” Antonio Marcegaglia said.

“As production is getting rebalanced with demand, I think European prices are close to the bottom. Positive signs are coming from the recovery of the raw materials prices and from the Chinese steel prices increases. So I expect a small technical rebound also in the European prices,” he said, stressing pre-coronavirus levels were a long way off.

In Europe, HRC prices were near a four-year low. The Platts HRC index was Eur413.50/mt ($460/mt) ex-works Ruhr, and Marcegaglia saw a gradual rebound of Eur20-30/mt shortly.

Talking about Marcegaglia Group, the CEO said year started well but volumes dropped from March due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In line with most other steel companies, from March saw a difficult second quarter and a better end to the year, leading to a fall in 2020 turnover of around 15% to Eur4.5 billion.

Full-year volume, meanwhile, was expected to fall around 10%-15% to 5.2 million mt of steel products. Including Palini and Bertoli, the 380,000 mt plate producer acquired in November from Evraz, volume will be down about 10%.

“We managed to integrate Palini and Bertoli well with the rest of the company. Due to COVID-19, the company stopped production for three weeks. Overall as a group, we produced 10%-12% less volume in March year on year and down by 30%-35% in April year on year, after a positive January and February,” Antonio Marcegaglia said.

M&A possibilities

Antonio Marcegaglia said the company is still interested in buying special steel producer Terni AST.

ThyssenKrupp, the owner of Terni, said on a May 18 earnings call said that Terni was back on the market. ThyssenKrupp also said it was seeking partners for its steel unit again since the slump in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic will further increase the surplus capacity in the market.

In 2018 following a restructuring of ThyssenKrupp Materials, Terni became one of the company’s core assets and was withdrawn from sale.

Marcegaglia, one of Terni’s main stainless customers, would be a good fit in terms of commercial and sales synergies, industries sources have said.

Marcegaglia produces 500,000 mt of stainless steel products a year with a third of the stainless coils it buys from Terni. If Marcegaglia buys Terni, the company will not only have a primary productions but will increase its stainless market production.

Antonio Marcegaglia said the company was on track overall to build its own power plants in Ravenna (20 MW) and Gazoldo (30 MW) to increase its economic sustainability, stabilizing and optimizing the production costs by using energy from renewable sources. Although the process has been slowed by COVID-19, the plants were expected to become operational at the beginning of 2022.

— Annalisa Villa

EU steel mills file subsidy case against HRC imports from Turkey

European steel association Eurofer has filed a complaint with the European Commission requesting a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation against hot-rolled coil imports from Turkey, S&P Global Platts learned Friday from Veysel Yayan, general secretary of Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD).

In the complaint, Eurofer claimed that Turkish flat steel producers are benefiting from government incentives like Eximbank programs, tax and investment supports and electricity, natural gas and water cost discounts.

Veysel Yayan told Platts Friday that as Eurofer’s claims are all false and groundless, he anticipates the EC will not open any investigations against Turkish HRC. “Turkish mills are obeying all WTO rules and aren’t receiving any incentives from the government,” he said.

The EC recently launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of certain hot-rolled flat products from Turkey following a request by Eurofer for the action, as Platts has reported. As a reply to this investigation, Turkey informed the World Trade Organization on May 25 that custom duties could be imposed on steel imports from the EU, in response to the EU’s move for additional measures against imports of Turkish steel.

Turkey is planning to impose duties ranging from 9% to 17% on some flat-rolled products, non-alloy bars and angles from the EU region, under HS codes: 7208, 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7214, 7215 and 7216, in an effort to balance trade between the parties.

According to Turkish Steel Exporters’ Union (CIB) data, domestic mills’ steel exports to the EU fell 30% in the first quarter of 2020, while European mills’ steel exports to Turkey doubled in the period.

— Cenk Can

Severstal: no notice yet of EU duty review, Eurofer: no comment

Russian steelmaker Severstal is ready to participate in any review of the anti-dumping duty on its hot-rolled coil exports to the EU, and would be able to prove it does not resort to unfair trade practices or dumping if such a review were initiated, it said Friday.

Responding to questions from S&P Global Platts following a report this week that European steel industry body Eurofer was pushing for a review by the European Commission, Severstal said it had not received notice from any official source and did not have any insider knowledge.

A spokesman for Eurofer said: “We can offer no comment on this issue, nor confirm its veracity.”

“The original article quoted an external source, not Eurofer,” he added.

Severstal confirmed it currently pays a Eur17.60/mt duty on its HRC exports to the EU. The duty has been in place since October 2017 and is due to expire around October 2022.

Severstal received a substantially lower European import duty than that imposed on HRC from other Russian flat-rolled steel producers MMK (Eur96.50/mt) and NLMK (Eur53.30/mt).

Severstal sent 797,000 mt of steel products to the EU in January-March 2020, around 29% of its total sales in the quarter and up by 5% from Q4 2019. In the same quarter last year, exports to Europe contributed a quarter of company’s revenue, Severstal said.

A German distributor said: “I would welcome a higher duty on Severstal imports. They have been an accelerator for lower prices. Since AD was imposed, they have caused continuous disruption.”

“The duty should be at the same level as for the other Russian steelmakers and then those extreme price swings would be limited more,” he added.

Latest Russian import offers were heard at Eur370-375/mt CIF Antwerp, duty paid.

Russia was the second biggest HRC import source for European buyers in March after Turkey at 136,719 mt, seeing a 23% year-on-year increase, according to Eurofer. March saw EU’s total HRC imports down 40% year on year to 452,502 mt.

Although any review would likely take some time, sentiment towards market protectionism is rising in the EU given the collapse in local steel demand, and this may lead to additional export barriers, which would be similarly bad for other Russian steelmakers, according to analysts from Moscow-based BCS Investment Group.

— Ekaterina Bouckley, Laura Varriale