European distributors boost shipments in H1

Shipments from steel service centres (SSC) and general steel distributors in Europe rose during the first six months of the year thanks to the boost registered in Q2, according to the data published by EUROMETAL, the European association for stockholders and distributors.

SSC saw their shipments recovering by 4% year-on-year during H1, thanks to the rise seen in Q2 when shipments increased 7% y-o-y. Multi-product distributors on the other hand saw their shipments increasing 3% y-o-y during the January-June period, with long products leading the recovery with a 7% y-o-y growth.

As reported, SSC shipments increased by 6% y-o-y in 2015, while multi-product distributors saw their shipments fall by 3% y-o-y last year.

While the recovery in shipments underlined a healthy demand in Europe, distributors remained cautious when managing their stocks; both SSC and multi-product distributors kept their stocks stable in June in terms of days of sales. In June SSC had 57 days’ worth of sales in stock, while distributors had 70 days.

— Emanuele Norsa