Sales at German steel stockholders increased by 13.5% year-on-year to 1 million mt in May, while stocks remained stable at 2.4 million mt, according to latest figures from the stockholders’ association Bundesverband Deutscher Stahlhandel (BDS).
The data showed that buying activity picked up again in May following rather subdued business in April when sales were at 858,012 mt. Looking at data going back to 2014, May sales levels have been the second highest in that time period, but very close to this year’s March sales levels at 1.06 million.
In detailed figures for May, flat product sales showed a 14.9% y-o-y increase to 583,422 mt, whereas long products saw similar growth of 13.9% y-o-y to 323,312 mt.
In regards to stock levels however, long and flat products showed different developments in May. While flat product inventories rose slightly by 2.6% y-o-y to 1.5 million mt, long products fell by 13.5% y-o-y to 839,909 mt.
Sources in Germany highlighted to Platts previously that stocks of flat products in particular remained high throughout spring and only started to marginally reduce at the beginning of the summer.
Laura Varriale, PLATTS