April signals on-year revival in EU distribution activity

Activity at European flats steel service centres (SSC) and multi-product distributors rose significantly in April compared with the same month of 2017, Kallanish learns from EUROMETAL.

Shipments by SSC moved up 7.3% y-o-y in April alone. Overall shipments during the first four months of the year remained stable compared with the same period of 2017, the European distributors’ association notes.

SSC also showed slight re-stocking activity during the period as stocks returned to 72 days’ worth of sales. In April last year these were calculated at 82 days’ worth of sales.

Meanwhile shipments from multi-products distributors also jumped 8.5% y-o-y in April. Overall aggregated shipments in the first four months of 2018 have been 0.7% higher than last year. Stocks in April meanwhile reached 80 days’ worth of sales, compared with 87 days’ worth of sales in April 2017.