German steel sales rose 9.6% month over month and 0.8% year over year to 857,680 mt in July, while stocks dropped from levels seen in the previous year, according to data published by the German steel stockholders’ association BDS Aug. 27.
Steel longs sales in July rose 1.1% month over month and 1.2% year over year to 257,652 mt, while sales of flat products decreased 0.6% year over year but rose 12.1% month over month to 499,325 mt.
All other steel sales in July rose 26.5% month over month and 7.9& year over year to 86,703 mt.
Germany’s total steel stocks in July decreased by 3.7% year over year but increased by 1.7% month over month to 1.89 million mt. Stocks of long steel products rose 5.5% year over year and 0.2% month over month to 661,490 mt. Stocks of flat products dropped 8.2% year over year but rose 2.5% month over month to 1.19 million mt. Other steel stocks declined 0.7% year over year and rose 4% month over month to 39,989 mt.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed domestic HRC in Northern Europe at Eur575/mt ex-works Ruhr Aug. 26, stable day over day. In July, prices moved down from Eur565/mt ex-works on July 1 to Eur535/mt on July 21, and then started to rise, closing at Eur560/mt at the end of July.
German crude steel production continued to decline in July, with output falling by 13.7% year over year to 2.7 million mt, according to data from the German steel federation WV Sthal published Aug. 20.
