German steel sales rose 10.4% year over year and 9.3% month over month to 943,927 metric tons in March, with stocks that slightly went up 0.7% year over year but fell 1.3% month over month to 1,899,091 mt, data from the Federal Association of the German Steel Trade, or BDS, showed April 23.
Sales of steel longs products registered the steepest increase in March, helped by the seasonality of the construction sector and better demand. In March, sales of longs grew 19.2% month over month and 23.9% year over year to 310,853 mt, data showed.
Sales of flats products went up by 6.8% month over month and 2.7% year over year to 547,553 mt, according to the data.
Sales of the other steel products rose 4.9% month over month and 7.1% year over year to 85,521 mt, data showed.
For the first time since the beginning of the year, steel stocks of flat products fell 2.5% month over month in March but were still up 2% at 1,213,167 mt.
Stocks of longs steel products also went down for the first time in 2026 by 1.7% year over year in March, but rose 0.8% month over month.
Stocks of other products fell 0.5% year over year and rose 5.2% month over month to 37,508 mt in March.
According to Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, HRC Ruhr ex-works moved from Eur670/mt seen on March 2 to Eur710/mt recorded at the end of the month on March 31 and then continued to stay at that level until April 21, when prices registered a little correction.
Platts assessed Northern Europe HRC at Eur705/mt ex-works Ruhr on April 22, down Eur5/mt day over day and Southern Europe HRC at Eur695/mt ex-works Italy, up Eur5/mt during the same period.
Overall, European hot-rolled coil prices were largely stable in the last few weeks of April, as market participants noted that further direction on the EU’s new safeguard measures would be needed before making any sizeable trading decisions.
In Germany, some service centers with leftover stock were reported to be offering material at a lower basis than mills, which were holding offers firm, according to market sources.
Service center offers were heard at Eur705/mt ex-works Ruhr, while mill offers were heard between Eur720-750/mt ex-works Ruhr.
Workable levels for normal tonnages were heard at Eur700-715/mt ex-works Ruhr, while sources noted that Eur680-695/mt would be achievable for larger tonnages.
Author: Annalisa Villa
