Day: 18 July 2023

The decision was taken following an expiry review requested by the European Steel Tube Association in 2022.

Following the review, the Commission decided to maintain the existing AD measures at the rate of 29.2-54.9%, depending on the specific mill supplying the material from China.

Emanuele Norsa Italy

However, production remained below 2021 levels and far below pre-Covid levels, Kallanish notes.

Production of commercial vehicles above 3.5 tonnes nevertheless soared 30.4% in June to 24,698 units, taking five-month production up 68% to 122,920 units. Output in 2023 is on course to exceed 2022 production, which was an annual record.

Public transport vehicle output, meanwhile, grew 22.3% in May to 433 units, taking five-month production up 12.2% to 2,166 units.

In full-year 2022, Polish automotive sector domestic sales rose 25% on-year to a record PLN 207 billion ($52.1 billion). This was also up 29% versus 2019, Santander Bank Polska says in a new report. Production was 484,000 units, up 11% on-year but down 26% on 2019. The first quarter this year saw a 65% on-year production surge.

Higher European automotive production has been driven by a strong backlog of orders, but new orders have been weak. At German carmakers, reduced orders resulted in a decrease in the order portfolio in March to 150% of the 2019 level.

“If these trends continue, there may be a complete contraction of the portfolio over the coming months, followed by a reduction in production due to low demand. Among the factors choking demand have been rising car prices. Producer price indices alone do not fully reflect price developments for final buyers,” says Santander Bank Polska automotive analyst Radosław Pelc.

“Due to the prevailing demand, dealer prices have usually been non-negotiable. In addition, manufacturers offered greater availability of more expensive models, albeit those equipped with alternative drive systems,” he adds.

Adam Smith Poland

MasterModel is a high-level mathematical software system capable of integrating the metallurgical details of HRC, such as chemical and mechanical properties, and microstructure, with the target quality of the final product. “It adjusts the parameters of the production phases … and optimises the transitions of the thermal cycles in a fully automatic way, providing a customised annealing cycle, coil per coil, ensuring a better homogenisation of the product properties and lower energy consumption,” the spokesperson explains.

French equipment maker Fives has started up its so-called “SmartLine” at Margegalia’s plant in Ravenna. This is a digital strip processing line based on predictive models and process knowledge that optimises the operations of sections of the strip processing line in automatic mode. SmartLine processes incoming coil data, predicts setpoints for targeted properties and adjusts process parameters for each coil. It enables each coil to be produced as first choice from head to tail.

SmartLine has allowed Margegalia to reduce operating expenditure, in particular gas consumption by 10%, while productivity has risen 5% and the firm has obtained a very high stability of the process, says Marcegaglia Ravenna manager and Carbon Steel Flat chief operating officer Aldo Fiorini. SmartLine is the result of a joint development and a tool to produce better, faster and at higher quality, he adds.

Natalia Capra France

Despite buyers pushing for values to decline, considering lower Europe-wide consumption, Italian steelmakers are not envisaging any price decrease, particularly in view of the upcoming production stoppages. These have already started for certain products such as merchant bar and rebar, and will continue through August.

Besides the high costs of energy steelmakers are facing in Italy, a tug of war is happening between scrap merchants asking for increases and producers seeking lower prices. Steelmakers, whose margins are being significantly squeezed by the high cost of production, will not be able to increase scrap prices in August.

“The domestic scrap market remains very tense, and the mood of the merchants is clearly bullish. Some Italian producers seem to have granted some moderate increases to guarantee continuity of supply. Talking about price drops on the Italian rebar market is completely out of place,” one mill source tells Kallanish.

In terms of prices and volumes, rebar, mesh and wire rod continue to be weak. “The are no realistic possibilities of recovery” at present, says a source. September is also not seen bringing any significant change in consumption, apart from a possible temporary restocking.

Rebar prices are flat compared to last week, at €600/tonne ($674) ex-works on average including size extras. Wire rod also remains unchanged, at €570-580/t delivered, sources suggest.

Natalia Capra France