EUROMETAL figures reaffirm EU steel sector downturn

The latest figures published by distributors’ association EUROMETAL reaffirm the downturn of the European steel sector during the second part of 2018. This is particularly so when it comes to the sectors linked to the automotive industry.

In November flat steel service centres (SSC) saw their shipments fall by -4% year-on-year. The drop took overall shipments from SSCs down -2.6% y-o-y during the first 11 months of the year.

As reported by Kallanish, SSCs have been hit by a reduction in demand from the automotive sector across Europe. The only positive indication from EUROMETAL was the fact that stocks at SSCs were also low in November, calculated at an index of 106 compared with 112 in November 2017. The low stocks could well indicate the need of restocking going forward, but this can happen only if demand picks up slightly.

The negative trend in November was also seen at multi-products distributors, which registered a fall in shipments of some -1% y-o-y. Despite the drop in November, aggregated annual data remained positive, up 0.9% y-o-y during the first 11 months of 2018.