Category: Latest Updates

Outre-Rhin, les stocks moyens de produis plats et longs en acier se sont accrus à 2,5 M de t au troisième trimestre, comparativement à 2,4 M de t lors du trimestre précédent, d’après BDS (Bundesverband Deutscher Stahlhandel), l’association des distributeurs allemands.

Les stocks de produits plats en hausse de 130000t alors que les stocks moyens de produits longs ont progressé de moins de 4000 t sur un trimestre, à 886 642 t, les stocks moyens de produits plats laminés ont quant à eux augmenté de 130 000 t sur la période considérée pour s’établir à 1,59 M de t.

Au troisième trimestre, les ventes mensuelles moyennes ont chuté à 952 469 t, contre 970 475 t au cours du trimestre précédent. En septembre, les ventes ont totalisé 901 713 t, comparé à 908 323 t un an auparavant, et à 953 865 t en août.

Sur les marchés des produits longs et plats, l’activité s’est interrompue durant la période estivale. En outre, la flambée des prix attendue lors de la première quinzaine de septembre ne s’est pas concrétisée.

Produits plats: les acheteurs européens en retrait depuis plusieurs semaines

Les acheteurs européens de produits plats, attendant que les usines de premier plan donnent la tendance des prix, ont adopté une attitude attentiste depuis plusieurs semaines.

Nombre d’entre elles ont refusé de publier leurs listes de prix pour 2019 avant la tenue du salon Euroblech à Hanovre en Allemagne.

Si les prix des produits longs ont affiché un niveau globalement stable en septembre, certaines sources tablent sur une progression suite à la récente remontée de ceux des ferrailles.

In September shipments from European steel service centres dropped significantly compared to last year, continuing the negative trend seen since the beginning of the summer, Kallanish learns from EUROMETAL data.

Overall in September, shipments were down 11.6% y-o-y. Due to the fall, Q3 shipments fell 3.5% y-o-y while those for the first nine months of the year have been 2.4% less than the same period of 2017.

The negative trend seen in the service centres sector was not completely followed by multi-products distributors.

Shipments from general steel distributors fell 3.2% y-o-y in September, but overall in Q3 they remained 0.9% above Q3 2017 and in the Jan-Sep period were 0.3% higher than in the first nine months of last year.

Germany’s stockholding distributors sold 7.72 million tonnes of steel products over January to September 2018, an increase of 1.8% over the first nine months of 2017, Kallanish learns from their federation BDS.

Sales volumes were relatively low in September at 905,000t. This compares with the “… extraordinarily busy” summer months of June and July, in both of which slightly more than 1mt were sold, reports BDS chief economics Jörg Feger in the federation’s Stahlreport. In between, August was slightly down on the corresponding 2017 month, but still achieved a “… decent tonnage” of 950,000t.

Sales of pipes in the first nine months also showed a year-on-year increase, he writes, without giving detailed figures.

Inventories in September totalled 2.53mt, a strong 14% above that in September 2017. This is in line with comments gathered earlier by Kallanish from the market, with sales of coated sheet and strip having slowed due to faltering production at German carmakers.

In this document you may find the Facts & Topics discussed in National Federations Meetings from 2011 to 2018.

EUROMETAL COORDINATION MEETINGS WITH NATIONAL FEDERATIONS – MEETING FACTS TOPICS

ArcelorMittal has completed the acquisition of Italy’s largest steelmaker Ilva, effective November 1, it said in a statement Thursday.

Ilva was purchased by a consortium called AM Investco, in which ArcelorMittal has a majority 94.4% stake while Banca Intesa Sanpaolo owns the remaining 5.6%.

Following completion of the transaction, ArcelorMittal has assumed full management control of Ilva, which will form a new business cluster within ArcelorMittal Europe-Flat Products and will be known as ArcelorMittal Italia.

The new owner is now set to launch a Eur2.4 billion investment program, including a Eur1.15 billion environmental investment plan. In addition, the industrial investment plan, including the reline of BF No. 5, will increase crude steel production to 8 million mt/year, ArcelorMittal said.

“Closing the acquisition of Ilva is an important strategic step for ArcelorMittal,” chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal said in the statement. “We have a strong history of rehabilitating under-performing assets. “I am confident that we will prove successful in restoring Ilva’s operational, financial and environmental performance and, in doing so, create value for our company, Ilva’s stakeholders and the Italian economy.”

As per the deal terms ArcelorMittal will be leasing Ilva for a minimum of four-five years, with the annual leasing charge of Eur180 million, effectively a down payment against the acquisition price of Eur1.8 billion. It should also be noted that the acquisition price includes Eur1 billion of net working capital.

ArcelorMittal is continuing negotiations with buyers regarding the sale of the other assets – ArcelorMittal Dudelange in Luxembourg, and several finishing lines in Liege, Belgium – included in the divestment package proposed to meet the EU antitrust requirements for the Ilva deal. The company has already secured a binding offer for four European facilities (Ostrava, Galati, Skopje and Piombino).

Wojtek Laskowski, S&P Global PLATTS

Metals producer and trader Liberty House is reported to be in the pole position to purchase the remaining ArcelorMittal assets put on sale as part of the divestment package agreed with the European Commission to close ArcelorMittal’s acquisition of Ilva.

The decision is likely to be disclosed very soon, two market sources close to the deal told S&P Global Platts on Wednesday.

ArcelorMittal is in discussions to sell the last part of the assets slated for divestment: its rolling/finishing lines at Dudelange (Luxembourg) and cold-rolling and tin packaging lines in Tilleur, Liege (Belgium).

It is understood that the choice is between Salzgitter and Liberty House. If the latter is chosen as expected it will become an important actor in the European steel industry. A few weeks ago ArcelorMittal announced it had agreed to sell to Liberty House its largest “remedies” package — involving the steelmaking facilities in the Czech Republic, Romania, Macedonia and Italy. Closure of this transaction is now subject to approval by the EC and consultations with local European works councils.

Salzgitter confirmed to Platts a few weeks ago that it bid for these rolling and finishing lines. On Wednesday a Salzgitter press officer did not reply to Platts on the matter before the editorial deadline. Liberty House and ArcelorMittal both declined to comment when contacted by Platts.

According to Platts’ sources, the EC wanted all the units to be sold to a single company. It is understood that if Liberty House is confirmed as the buyer of all ArcelorMittal remedies it is likely that there will be a commercial agreement between Liberty House and ArcelorMittal, with AM Ghent (5.5 million mt/year capacity) feeding the Liege line while the AM Durkirk site (7 million mt/year crude capacity) feeding the Dudelange line.

According to analysts at Jefferies Research Services, Dudelange and Liege in total have annual capacities of 1.6 million mt to produce galvanized/coated steel, 300,000 mt of cold-rolled coil and 200,000 mt of tinplate. According to ArcelorMittal’s website, ArcelorMittal Dudelange consists of two hot-dip galvanizing lines, two electrogalvanizing lines, two slitting and two cutting lines. It produces Aluzinc, Alusi, Usibor and EG sheet.

According to Liberty House’s website the company was established in 1992 by Sanjeev Gupta as a trading company focused on Africa and Asia. In 2009 Liberty acquired its first steel plant in Africa. In 2013, it acquired MIR Steel Newport, a 2 million mt/year capacity steelworks, which was later renamed Liberty Steel Newport (LSN). In the same year Liberty purchased the second largest privately owned engineering business in the UK – Caparo Industries Plc. The year after Liberty purchased an EAF, continuous casting equipment, rod and bar mill in Sheerness. Last year Liberty House acquired Tata Speciality Steels, which was renamed Liberty Speciality Steels. In the same year it also targeted Australia, where it acquired Arrium’s steel business — now called Liberty Onesteel.

Annalisa Villa, S&P Global PLATTS

Tata Steel and thyssenkrupp will continue to work closely with the European Commission providing information and analysis after the EC yesterday announced that the proposed thyssenkrupp-Tata joint venture will face a more detailed “phase two” anti-trust review, the two companies told S&P Global Platts on Wednesday.

“Tata Steel along with thyssenkrupp continues to believe in the strong industrial logic and rationale for the proposed joint venture, and regard it as the optimal outcome for the future of its European steel business as well as for wider stakeholders in the European steel industry,” Tata Steel Europe stated in a press released Wednesday. “The business combination is envisioned as a structurally robust, sustainable and competitive company, which will be a reliable, efficient and technologically strong partner for its customers. We also remain committed to continued constructive engagement with the EC in the following months as part of the next phase of this review process.”

In a statement released Tuesday the EC said it was concerned that customers would face higher prices and fewer suppliers if the merger between Tata and thyssenkrupp was allowed to go ahead.

“Steel is a crucial input for many of the goods we use in our everyday life, and competitive steel prices are vital for the European economy,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EC commissioner in charge of competition policy. “Industries dependent on steel employ over 30 million people in Europe and we must be able to compete in global markets. This is why we will carefully investigate the impact of the planned combination of Tata Steel’s and thyssenkrupp’s steel businesses on effective competition in the steel markets.”

The EC’s initial market investigation raised several issues relating in particular to the combined companies’ market share in specialty flat carbon steel and electrical steel products, highlighting automotive applications, metallic coated steel for packaging and grain-oriented electrical steel sectors.

“It is highly likely that thyssenkrupp will be forced to dispose of remedy assets to assuage EC concerns and secure anti-trust approval,” an analyst at Jefferies International commented. “Somewhat surprisingly, ThyssenKrupp-Tata reportedly did not voluntarily offer any remedy measures in their initial application to the EC.”

The EC set March 19, 2019 as new deadline for its ruling. If the merger is approved it will create Europe’s second-biggest steelmaker, behind ArcelorMittal, producing 21 million mt/year.

As previously reported, in the recent EC review of the ArcelorMittal-Ilva merger, ArcelorMittal agreed to dispose of assets in the Czech Republic, Romania, Macedonia and Italy to satisfy competition regulators.

Len Griffin, S&P Global PLATTS

DISTRIBUTION 4.0.  was the title of a conference convened by PUDS, the Polish Steel Distribution federation, in Warsaw on 30 October 2020.

More than 100 participants had gathered to listen to the presentations of 8 speakers dealing with the many aspects of digitalization in steel distribution and steel service centers.

The meeting was opened by Iwona Dybal, chairwoman of PUDS who set the frame of the conference by outlining the many challenges digitalization represents for the business of steel distribution.

The present status of digitalization with steel producers was detailed by Maciej Kalbaczyk, Senior Manager McKinsey & Company Poland, including also a large view on the Klöckner strategy regarding digitalization and Industry 4.0.

Tomasz Plaskura, CMO Region East, ARCELORMITTAL Europe gave a broad statement on how ARCELORMITTAL is enhancing visibibity, flexibility and transparency in its customer relations with the help of digital tools like STEEL USER and others.

The morning session was closed by a presentation of the Port of Antwerp outlining the port’s efforts  to federate all players in the bulk shipping business around a common digital project called BULKCHAIN

Georges Kirps, General Director of EUROMETAL, underlined the potential which digitalization is representing in order to optimize the combined complexities of customer segmentation, product portfolio, product availability and added value service offer.

XOM Materials, with offices in Berlin, Duisburg and Atlanta, has opened an online platform open to all steel market players, which is now already used by a number of steel vendors. Tim Milde, CCO of XOM Materials presented the main features of this e-platform.

Michal Jatczak from AON POLSKA, identified the potential cyber risks which might be facing companies and institutions in the wake of economy 4.0.

The meeting was closed by an address of a representative of the Polish Ministry for Enterprises and Technology regarding governmental support in digital transition for Polish entrepreneurs.

PUDS is planning to convene second edition of the event in mid 2019.

[ photos of the event ]

Average German steel stocks of longs and flats increased to 2.5 million mt in the third quarter, compared to 2.4 million mt in the previous quarter, according to data from German stockholder association BDS.

Furthermore, September stock levels of 2.5 million mt were up from 2.2 million mt in September 2017.

While average longs stocks increased by less than 4,000 mt quarter on quarter to 886,642 mt, average stocks of flat-rolled steel gained over 130,000 mt on the quarter reach 1.59 million mt.

Average monthly sales during the quarter fell to 952,469 mt from 970,475 mt the previous quarter. Total sales in September came to 901,713 mt down from 908,323mt in the year-ago period and down from 953, 865 mt in August.

Activity in Europe’s longs and flats markets ground to a halt during the summer holiday period in late July and August and the price rally that was expected in the first half of September failed to materialize.

European flats buyers have been sitting on their hands in recent weeks awaiting first-half 2019 price guidance from large mills, with many refusing to provide 2019 price lists ahead of the biennial EuroBLECH trade fair held in Hanover, Germany last week.

Pricing in the longs market has also been largely stable during September, although market sources have said they are anticipating a price increase following the recent strengthening of scrap prices.

Erica Sesay, S&P Global PLATTS

Independent distributors of steel – traders and stockholders — are likely to be the first to suffer from international trade restriction measures, according to speakers at a EUROMETAL meeting earlier this month attended by Kallanish.

“I spoke to colleagues in Germany and Spain, and most independents are afraid of duties,” said Lex Coenen of Dutch service centre Noviostaal. The safeguard measures by the US and the EU protect the mills, but not independent steel service centres (SSC), which “…cannot compete if we have to pay duties,” he said. His company has customers in the US and recently sold to Pakistan and Israel, he added.

Coenen spoke of one occasion when Noviostaal made a purchase from a mill for one of its downstream customers. “Two days later, the same guy who sold us the material went to that customer and said, ‘why don’t we supply you directly?’” He said. However, the customer preferred to stay with the SSC that had served him for years.

Regarding the role of the trader, Julian Verden of Stemcor reminded of the administrative burdens to stay on top of the international game, of the regular updating of regulations, of lobbying. “You need to have someone to be educated and prepared for all the paperwork, and it takes time,” he underlined. Especially now in times of irritations in trade policy, “…if you have 70% from EU mills, and 30% from imports, as a stockholder you can’t manage that, and that’s the role of the trader,” he maintained.