Day: 29 June 2023

European hot-rolled coil prices have stabilized and potential supply disruptions are likely to prevent further drops, but a rebound is unlikely in the short term due to low demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday June 28.Trading remained quiet in Northern Europe on Wednesday, with buyers still holding back from restocking, citing slow downstream sales.

Most market sources agreed that the downtrend that affected the market in the past several weeks has come to an end. They now expect HRC prices to stabilize in the coming weeks.

“Mills are hungry for orders, but not very willing to lower offered prices anymore. Production disruptions in Germany and France will affect [HRC] prices indeed, but not immediately,” a trader said.

“I hope the [HRC] price will stabilize, but the [end-user] demand is so low that I absolutely do not believe in a rebound,” a distributor said.

On Monday, authorities ordered the suspension of steelmaking operations at ArcelorMittal’s Fos-sur-Mer site in southern France due to environmental and worker-safety considerations. ArcelorMittal did not specify the timeline for the closure, only pointing out that “the company has established and implemented an action plan with all parties to reduce personnel exposure.”

The final decision on the plan is expected later in the week to July 7, sources said.

On the same day, German steelmaker Salzgitter declared force majeure on steel deliveries because of disruptions resulting from heavy rain in Germany.

Producers in Northern Europe were able to offer September-delivery coil, sources said, with offers reported at €680-700 ($744-766) per tonne EXW on Wednesday. At the same time, buyers’ estimates of tradeable values were €660-680 per tonne EXW.

A deal for a sizeable tonnage of HRC from a mill in the Benelux area was reported at €620 per tonne EXW, but this could not be widely confirmed by the time of publication.

Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe was calculated at €670.63 per tonne on Wednesday, down by just €1.37 per tonne from €672.00 per tonne on Tuesday.

The latest calculation of the Northern European index was down by €9.37 per tonne week on week and by €80.20 per tonne month on month.

Fastmarkets calculated its corresponding daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy at €645.18 per tonne on Wednesday, down by just €0.81 per tonne from €645.99 per tonne on Tuesday.

The Italian index was down by €6.17 per tonne week on week and by €43.57 per tonne month on month.

Offers from integrated producers and re-rollers in the region were still being heard in the range of €650-680 per tonne EXW for August and September delivery.

One mill in the south of Italy was reportedly offering sizeable tonnages of commodity grades HRC at €620-630 per tonne CPT in Italy. But market sources said that such low offers had not impacted the price trend much.

“[Mills in the south] are absolutely irrelevant to real market levels. They are in a chronic delay for delivering orders,” a steel-service center source in Italy said.

Buyers’ estimations of tradeable values were still reported at around €640-650 per tonne EXW for small tonnages and around €620-630 per tonne EXW for sizeable volumes.

Buyers, however, were only booking small lots recently, postponing restocking.

HRC offers from Asian mills to Italy have been limited in the week to Wednesday.

Most sources reported a range of €610-620 per tonne CFR, mainly for August shipments from Vietnam and Taiwan.

Published by: Julia Bolotova

Trading in Europe for cold-rolled and hot-dipped galvanized coil remained “frozen” in the week to Wednesday June 28, but prices seem to have hit rock bottom and are likely to stabilize in the short term, sources told Fastmarkets.The spot market has remained quiet across Europe, with both mills and buyers continuing to hold back from trading.

Firm offers were also rare in the market because – until recently – mills were largely focused on long-term contracts negotiations with end users in automotive industry, rather than on spot sales.

But negotiations for long-term contracts with buyers in the automotive industry for the second half of 2023 are reportedly being finalized at levels similar to that for the first half of 2023, which was considered to be positive for the market.

Buyers, meanwhile, are largely maintaining medium to low levels of stocks and were reported to only be making hand-to-mouth bookings lately.

One integrated mill in the region was offering CRC at €780 ($854) per tonne EXW and HDG at €800 per tonne EXW, both for September delivery, sources told Fastmarkets.

An Italian mill offered August-delivery HDG to Germany at €800 per tonne CPT, which is unchanged from a week earlier.

But buyers’ price ideas for CRC in the region were reported at €750-760 per tonne EXW, and no higher than €780 per tonne for HDG, sources said.

Nevertheless, sources expected the mood in the market to change in the coming weeks, with mills possibly even attempting to raise prices.

“The recent disruptions in Germany and France might result in tighter flat steel supply in Europe – we need a bit more time to assess the impact,” a trading source in Germany said.

On Monday, authorities ordered the suspension of steelmaking operations at ArcelorMittal’s Fos-sur-Mer site in southern France, on environmental and worker-safety considerations. The final decision on the plan is expected later in the week to July 7, sources said.

On the same day, German steelmaker Salzgitter declared force majeure on steel deliveries because of disruptions resulting from heavy rains in Germany.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil domestic, exw Northern Europe was €760-780 per tonne on Wednesday, widening downward by €10 per tonne from €770-780 per tonne on June 21.

The corresponding weekly price assessment for steel hot-dipped galvanized coil domestic, exw Northern Europe was €780-800 per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged from June 21.

Meanwhile, there were few import offers to Europe heard over the past week, with some suppliers heard to have withdrawn their offers.

Notably, South Korean and Indian mills were reportedly out of the market during the assessment week.

In the second half of June, August-shipment CRC from Japan was reportedly sold to Italy at €680 per tonne CFR. But Japanese suppliers were not in the market this past week, sources said.

A mill from Vietnam was targeting $700-710 per tonne CFR for August-shipment CRC to Europe.

An offer of 0.5mm Z100 HDG from Vietnam was reported at €790-795 per tonne CFR Antwerp, but only for September-shipment coil, since August-shipment material was already sold out.

“Import prices seem to be stable, but as the difference between imports and domestics are relatively small just a few buyers have appetite to purchase. Besides that, if they want to buy it’s only for limited volumes, as risks are high,” a second trading source said.

Published by: Julia Bolotova

In future, OKS and EMW will be operating on the market together as sister companies.

SCHÄFER Werke GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Neunkirchen in Germany’s Siegerland region, has acquired OKS Otto Knauf GmbH in Iserlohn from Fidelium Partners. Both parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

OKS Otto Knauf GmbH is an independently operating steel service company with over 100 employees. Founded in 1952, the business, with its rich tradition, gradually developed into a modern steel service centre.With its high-performance slitting lines, it processes several hundred tons of steel annually into the required forms and precise dimensions, achieving a turnover of approximately €95 million.

After its acquisition by Fidelium from the international operator STEMCOR in 2017, OKS was able to reposition itself successfully as an SME in Germany’s renowned “Mittelstand” and return to profitable growth. After the OKS takeover, Fidelium introduced an extensive series of successful optimisation measures. These included cost optimisation programmes and efficient use of operating capital, improvements in production and systems, as well as the successful implementation of product verification and business development measures.

The 100% family-owned SCHÄFER WERKE Group operates globally with diversified business areas: EMW Steel Service Centre, perforated sheets, container systems and IBCs, as well as IT and interior systems. The work of all these divisions is based on high-quality fine steel sheet and the processing of this material is one of the group’s traditional core competencies.

With this forward-looking investment, SCHÄFER is strengthening its EMW business unit – a steel service centre that operates independently of the plant. EMW will benefit from this acquisition and is pursuing its own long-term goals of continuous, healthy growth as well as the expansion of capacities. Above all, however, the takeover will expand the service portfolio: OKS has an extensive range of machinery, as well as a highly skilled and experienced workforce. Steels in thicknesses from 0.25 – 16 mm can be processed here and slit strips in stainless steel and aluminium are also produced, in addition to carbon steels. For EMW, the additional storage capacities are also very welcome. While the coil warehouse holds 60,000 tonnes, the finished material warehouse can store 15,000 tonnes of slit strip.

As one of Europe’s largest independent steel service centres, EMW supplies coils, slit strip, cut-to-size and circular blanks to the steel processing industry. At its two locations, in Neunkirchen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Treuen (Saxony), EMW has more than 220,000 tonnes of thin steel sheet permanently in stock. This means almost all standard market grades are constantly available. A highly efficient organisation for transport logistics is also one of the company’s particular specialities.

Source: emw-stahlservice.de

Following the launch of its Nexigen PCF Algorithm for calculating individualised product carbon footprints (PCFs), Klöckner & Co is now introducing a tool for customers’ smart management of PCFs.

The newly-launched Nexigen Data Services technology solution facilitates insights into the CO2 emissions history of products which customers have purchased from the distribution group. In addition, the tool suggests greener alternatives to these products and illustrates the corresponding potential for emissions reduction, Kallanish understands.

Nexigen Data Services visualises the CO2 emissions of a steel product along the entire value chain by means of a CO2 passport. According to Klöckner, this passport cannot be manipulated, thanks to the use of blockchain technology.

To this end, the company has employed Polkadot – an open blockchain technology, which Klöckner claims is the most energy-efficient compared to other blockchains. The use of this technology allows for a high degree of data integrity and resiliency against outages as well as gapless transparency along the value chain, it says.

Christian Koehl Germany