Germany’s total steel product sales fell 5% month over month and 3% year over year to 820,837 mt in April, BDS data showed May 22. Total inventories also fell 5.5% year over year but rose 1% month over month to 1.905 million mt, the data showed.
Sales
German sales of flat steel products decreased by 9% month over month and 5.6% year over year to 485,257 mt in April. Flat steel products are primarily used in the automotive sector, which is currently in decline due to unfavorable global economic conditions.
According to the latest data published by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association ACEA, new car registrations in the EU declined by 1.9% year over year in Q1 2025.
Domestic passenger car production in April fell 7% year over year to 367,500 units, according to VDA, the German Association of the Automotive Industry. Just over 1.4 million passenger cars were manufactured in Germany in the first four months of the year, up 1% year over year.
Sales of long steel products rose 3.4% month over month and 0.8% year over year to 259,504 mt. This was in line with expectations, as long steel products have generally been performing better since April, driven by demand from the construction sector, which typically picks up this time of the year.
Other steel product sales decreased by 4.7% month over month and rose 1.9% year over year to 76,976 mt.
Steel stocks
The country’s long steel stocks rose 0.5% month over month and 0.2% year over year to 662,764 mt in April. Stocks of flat products fell 8% year over year but rose 1.2% month over month to 1.2 million mt. Other steel product sales fell 14.1% year over year but rose 4.7% month over month to 39.469 mt.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed hot-rolled coils at Eur635/mt base ex-works Ruhr on May 20, up from Eur560/mt base ex-works at the beginning of the year. In April, hot-rolled coils stayed in the price range of Eur645-655/mt base ex-works.
