EUROMETAL Steel Net Forum IBERIA is open for registration
Dear Steel Distribution & Steel Trade Stakeholders, EUROMETAL is pleased to invite you to participate in a next EUROMETAL Steel Net Forum IBERIA, to be convened in Porto, Crowne Plaza Hotel, from 10-11 November 2016.
In the agenda you may find the flyer regarding EUROMETAL Steel Net Forum Iberia, hosted by Portuguese steel distribution federation AÇOMEFER and supported by Spanish steel distribution federation UAHE.
Please note that during the conference a Portuguese/Spanish/English simultaneously translation service will be available.
The conference hotel offers a preferred room booking rate till 30 September 2016.
Make use of the hotel booking form and mail it back to acomefer@sapo.pt.
To register to the event may we kindly ask you to make use of the registration form included in the flyer and mail it back to acomefer@sapo.pt before 31. October 2016.
Severstal Distribution increases sales despite weaker demand
Severstal Distribution, the service and trading network of Severstal Russian Steel’s division that operates in the CIS and the EU, increased its January-June 2016 sales by 9% year-on-year to 770,000 metric tons.
This represents roughly 15% of the division’s total 5.26 million mt steel sales in the first half of this year, according to results posted by Severstal Distribution.
The trading firm managed to increase sales, despite the decline in Russian steel demand, thanks to a larger variety of processing capabilities and faster, cheaper transport services.
Severstal Distribution said it has expanded its service range because, in addition to its own steel service centers, it has also started to use the metal processing facilities of its partner firms. It has also partnered with more trucking companies in order to cut delivery times and be able to provide its clients with more competitive shipping costs.
Severstal Distribution unites five regional units based in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia and Poland.
— Ekaterina Bouckley
Klöckner increases income in Q2, EU outlook brighter
Germany-based distributor and service center operator Klöckner & Co significantly increased its operating income (EBIDTA) in Q2 to €72 million, owing to steel price increases and the implementation of digital pricing tools that react quicker to price sensitivity, CEO Gisbert Rühl said in a press call on Thursday.
The distributor expects continued profit growth during Q3, but highlights that steel prices are likely to stop increasing further and to stagnate in Europe (see related article).
Klöckner improved its EBIDTA by €36 million year-on-year in Q2 after being hit hard by steel price deterioration mid-2015. In a quarter-on-quarter comparison, EBIDTA grew by €56 million. The price recovery, however, did not have as much effect on the sales figures, which decreased 10.4% y-o-y to €1.5 billion, resulting from still lower price levels on average and site closures in Europe. Shipments remained stable at 1.6 million metric ton y-o-y in Q2, while showing seasonal increases of 5.6% from Q1.
According to Rühl, introducing digital pricing tools that react more quickly to market developments has helped the distributor to benefit more from price increases than previously when pricing was done “offline”. Klöckner wants to increase its revenue coming from digital sales to 50% by 2019 from around 10% now.
The firm also announced a “one Europe” programme to streamline and centralise the management structure of its European distribution services by the end of 2018. As reported, the distributor will reduce its workforce by around 100 jobs and create two regional headquarters for Europe so as to have a more transnational approach. The job cuts will mainly affect Spain, France and the UK, but will not involve closures of actual stockholding sites, Rühl told Platts.
While both the European and the US businesses regained strength in Q2, Klöckner sees decreasing steel demand in the US for the year continuing as oil prices remain low. Where European demand is forecast to increase by 3%, US demand is expected to fall by 3% despite a strong automotive market. Klöckner expects an EBIDTA between €65 million and €75 million for Q3.
— Laura Varriale
thyssenkrupp fully acquires Spain’s Ros Casares SSC
Germany’s thyssenkrupp Materials Processing has assumed full ownership of Thyssen Ros Casares, a steel service centre in El Puig, South Eastern Spain, the company tells Kallanish.
The German company in the past had held a 50% share, but management was in the hands of the Ros family, from which the other half has now been acquired. The site in El Puig north of Valencia has an area of 39,000 m² on which it operates three slitting and two cutting lines. It processes hot-rolled, cold-rolled and surface coated steels, mainly for the automotive industry in the region, a spokesman says.
The Spanish site will now also be known as thyssenkrupp Materials Processing. The thyssenkrupp unit, headquartered in Krefeld, recently stepped up its expansion to form a Europe-wide service network, adding a site in Györ, Hungary, and another in Willich, Germany.
On the Iberian peninsula, the German group already operates cold-rolling mill Lamincer S.A. in Munguia, Spain with a potential annual output of 40,000t, and a warehouse in Portugal, Palmetal Armazenagem e Serviços in Palmela. Palmetal was established in 1993 to service Volkswagen, but today also has other customers.
thyssenkrupp took full ownership of both of the above companies in 2009, making them part of today’s thyssenkrupp Materials Processing business area.