German market supply remains subdued T

he many factors affecting industries and markets this year have put notable pressure on steel supply in Germany, says the country’s steel federation WV Stahl in its half year review.

As the federation reported earlier, crude steel production by German mills from January through June came to 19.56 million tonnes, 5.5% less than in H1 2021 (see Kallanish 20 July). Meanwhile, the federation has come up with downstream figures echoing that trend until the end of May.

Order intake for rolled products in the first five months saw the steepest fall of 16%, to an annualised value of slightly below 34mt. In 2021, the intake had recovered from the shock of the first coronavirus year, catching up on the loss of 2% that incurred in 2020. However, a downward trend was already reported in 2019, with 2.5% loss on-year.

The overall market supply, which includes imports that are not detailed, shows a similar but not identical trend. In both 2019 and 2020, the volume fell by around 10% y-on-y, likely affected by the safeguard measures introduced earlier. Last year then saw a resurgence of 12%. The first five months of 2022 brought again an on-year drop by 4% to a tonnage of somewhat below 35mt, annualised.

Christian Koehl Germany