Day: 1 June 2021

Wide-flanged H-beam import prices into Southeast Asia surged within May, as offer volumes were cited to have dwindled amid an upswing trend, market sources said.

S&P Global Platts assessed the end May price of wide-flanged S275JR H-beams up $110/mt month on month, at $950/mt CFR Southeast Asia May 31.

Buy-side sources were citing that since mid-May, offers were scant and only “given upon inquiry” as producers were thought to be in no hurry for sales amid surging trends.

“Suppliers are tight on offers this month, and this is also because the surging trend. What are being offered out previously were only valid for a few days, before a new and higher price came in,” a Singapore-based stockiest said. “But we’re not in the market for now and will wait and see as the prices might make a bearish turn, since Chinese steel prices, and regional scrap prices, have been falling.”

Thai-origin beams were heard most competitive toward the month’s end, at $1,000/mt CFR Singapore, while South Korean beams were offered at $1,070/mt CFR. This was up from levels of $840-$850/mt and $860-$890/mt from April, respectively.

“Some major players have not offered for two weeks now, maybe their sales have been too good for them in the local markets,” the source added.

The previous time the Platts index reached such highs were in 2008, when prices peaked at $1,340/mt CFR for July-end.

— Samuel Chin

Steel distribution group Klöckner & Co has appointed new top management at two of its German subsidiaries, Kallanish learns.

The group’s Germany unit, Klöckner & Co Deutschland, will have Bernhard Weiss as its new chief executive, effective 1 June. He assumes the role in addition to his position as the group’s ceo Europe. He succeeds Sven Koepchen, who will be moving into a cross-functional role for the expansion of the higher value-added business in Europe.

At Becker Stahl-Service, Germany’s largest steel service centre for strip and sheet products, Francois-David Martino will become new ceo, effective 21 June. Martino served in numerous leadership positions at companies including thyssenkrupp, Siemens and ZF Friedrichshafen, and most recently held the office of president & ceo China at Danieli.

He will focus on expanding the product and processing portfolio as well as technical expertise in manufacturing.  Furthermore, Christina Kolbeck has been named Becker’s new chief financial officer, in addition to her role as cfo of Klöckner & Co Deutschland. Becker has an annual capacity of around 1 million tonnes, employs some 500 people and generated sales of around €600 million ($732m) in fiscal-year 2020.

Christian Koehl Germany

Liberty Steel Galati has appointed Aida Nechifor its new general director, the first woman to lead the Romanian steelworks, Liberty Steel says. She will also have management responsibility for Liberty Skopje in Macedonia.

Nechifor, who was previously the plant’s chief financial officer and a member of the management committee since December 2018, joined the Galati steelworks in 2001.

Prasanta Kumar Mishra, who was appointed the plant’s interim general manager in February, has been appointed Galati’s new executive director. He will continue to work closely with Nechifor to steer the operational and technical aspects of the plant’s production activity. He will lead on the preparation of the key strategic development projects, such as the plant’s new electric arc furnace, direct reduced iron plant and MI.DA mini-mill, Liberty observes.

Nechifor “can now lead the team to continue its drive to improve the plant’s production levels up to 3 million tonnes of steel a year, from around 2 million last year, as well as accelerate the plant’s ambitious plans to become carbon neutral by 2030,” says Paramjit Kahlon, chief executive primary steel and integrated mining of Liberty Steel Group.

Former Galati chief executive Bogdan Grecu voluntarily stepped aside in February after being implicated by Romanian authorities in an alleged corruption case (see Kallanish passim). Liberty came under fire recently from the Czech government and unions for selling its Ostrava plant’s excess carbon emissions allowances to Liberty Galati.

Adam Smith Germany

A large number of European members of parliament (MEP) have signed a letter calling for the EU to stop exports of steel scrap, Kallanish notes.

The letter was prepared by Italian MEP Massimilani Salini and signed by 70 MEPs in total. Italian EAF-based steelmakers are among the most concerned about the availability of ferrous scrap going forward.

“Ferrous scrap is a valuable resource for the EU steel industry that helps reduce the use of primary raw materials and has a reduction potential of the CO2 emissions of the steelmaking process of 1.4-5 tonnes of CO2, depending on the quality and the process,” the letter explains.

“Ferrous scrap is an important element for starting down the de-carbonisation path and making the sector even more circular,” it continues. “However, exports of ferrous scrap from the EU27 have increased from 9 million tonnes in 2015 to more than 15mt in 2019. This has resulted in major detrimental climate and environmental consequences in destination countries, and globally, that would have been avoided if the same volumes had been recycled in the EU. This trend has to be reversed.”

The MEPs point out European waste ends up in countries with environmental, labour and safety requirements that are much lower than EU standards, resulting in much higher greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, a further control on exports from the EU should be in place.

“Exports of secondary raw materials should only be allowed when the country of destination can demonstrate that it has implemented equivalent standards on environment (emissions control and waste management), climate (ambitous climate targets and specific instruments for cutting GHGs) and human health (including workforce rights and safety),” the letter concludes.

The possibility of new legislation curbing exports of scrap from Europe has been mentioned on various occasions in recent months by officials and industry leaders. A clear strategy in that direction is yet to be formulated, however.

Emanuele Norsa Italy

Italian merchant bar values are increasing again, by €40/tonne ($48) compared to last week, sources tell Kallanish. As expected, values are now at €470/t base ex-works for June, in line with increasing scrap prices, and contracts are also gradually increasing.

Sellers and buyers expect more increases in June, with the rising trend of Italian long product prices expected to continue.

Including €420 size extras, contracts for merchant bar are now at €820-870/t ex-works, €20/t more compared to last week. Buyers are paying between €400-450/t base ex-works for the cheapest merchant bar grade.

Meanwhile, the main Spanish mills also have full order books, and opened and closed sales several times in May. They are said to be about to announce prices hikes for June.

Italian and Spanish mills are currently exporting between 70% and 80% of their output as demand, particularly from Easter European countries, remains strong.

Italian sections producers are also said to be mulling a €20/t increase in June, pushing prices for the first category of beams to €500/t base ex-works, sources say.

Natalia Capra France