EU steel distribution remains weak in July

The EUROMETAL sales from European steel service centres and multi-products distributors continued to be weak in July, Kallanish notes.

For flat steel service centres (SSC), January-July shipments were down -20.3% year-on-year. In July alone, the drop was -11.8% y-o-y, after a drop in June of -16.5% y-o-y.

Stocks at EU SSC reached 71 days of sales in July, compared with 72 in the same month of 2019.

A slightly better performance was recorded for multi-products distributors, registering a decrease in shipments of -13.2% y-o-y during January-July. Only rebar shipments were higher in the period compared with other products, EUROMETAL observes. In July alone, the fall of total shipments was -13.8% on-year.  

Multi-products distributors stocks were almost equal on-year with 79 days of sales in July, compared to the 78 days of sales registered in the same month in 2019.