Germany’s stockholding distributors sold a slightly higher tonnage of steel products in 2025 than a year earlier, according to figures from industry federation, BDS.
At 9.472 million tonnes, the volume was roughly 0.4% up on the 9.435t sold in in 2024, which itself had seen a more minimal increase over 2023.
Sales of long products rose by 5% to 2.973mt, after they had suffered a steeper drop from 2023 to 2024, by 15%. Sales of flat product totalled 5.610mt, which was another drop by 3%, which occurred the previous year as well.
BDS has not provided any interpretation alongside its statistics.
The relative recovery of long products may be an adjustment from the preceding drop that was caused by halted construction activities and higher power prices for EAF production since 2022.
Flat products, which can be more impacted by imports, may have gone directly to users from the ports, bypassing distributors. However, it is likely distributors have been involved in these transactions also.
This compares to the large production drop of German mills by 9% year-on-year in 2025, and by some 11% at oxygen-route mills, which are largely makers of flat products.
Kallanish also observes the notable increase in the “other products” category which totalled 890,000t, an increase of 50,000t, after an even larger increase of 140,00 the year earlier. The category includes wire rod but is otherwise little defined.
