First meeting of New EUROMETAL Presidency

The newly elected EUROMETAL Presidency met for the first time in Düsseldorf on 19. January 2016 under the chairmanship of EUROMETAL president, Jens Lauber, CEO TATA Steel Distribution Mainland Europe.

Besides President Jens Lauber, EUROMETAL Presidency board consists of:

First Vice president Robert Kay, FERONA, Czech Republic, Vice-presidents Mikael Nyquist, TIBNOR, Sweden, Johan Rosseel, GRYMAFER, Belgium, Cesare Vigano, AMCLN, Italy and Presidency board members Oliver Ellermann, BDS, Germany, Roberto Gonzalez, TIRSO Group, Spain, Michel Julien-Vauzelle, FFDM, France, Alexander Julius, MACROMETAL, Germany, Norbert Thumfart, ARGE SMD, Austria and Hein Vandeveire, AMDS SSC West Europe, Luxembourg.

© Ricardo Silva

Commenting the Presidency meeting, EUROMETAL president Jens Lauber underlined that EUROMETAL is an international platform for European steel distribution, SSC and steel trade, which are today 6 000 companies having shipments of 77 million tons, serving more than one million customers of steel, tubes and metal products and giving jobs to 110 000 people in the European Union.

The core member base of EUROMETAL is constituted by 19 national federations representing steel distribution and SSC, added the EUROMETAL president in his comment.

Jens Lauber pointed out to the facts that EUROMETAL represents more than half of all volumes channeled to the European steel consumers and that about 90% of the companies of the steel distribution sector are typically small and medium sized enterprises.

Commenting the geographical reach of EUROMETAL, Robert Kay, EUROMETAL First Vice-president, expressed his satisfaction about the acceptance of EUROMETAL as an outstanding provider of market intelligence and research reports leading to a strengthening of EUROMETAL’s visibility in Central and South-Eastern Europe.

After extending its reach to Estonia, EUROMETAL is pleased to announce that Slovenian group KOVINTRADE has recently joined the ranks of EUROMETAL.

KOVINTRADE is an international network of steel trade and distribution companies having subsidiaries and agencies in 13 European countries.

EUROMETAL NEWS RELEASE 21.01.2016

Eurometal membership extends to the Baltics

One of the main Estonian steel distribution groups has joined the ranks of EUROMETAL, the EU steel distributors’ and traders’ association.

The new members are RGR Metall, based in Tallin, Estonia, and sister company RGR Airon, based in Maardu, Estonia.

EUROMETAL provides services to 1,600 affiliates and member companies in the European Union.

EU steel distribution accounts at the moment for 77 million metric tons/year of steel supplies to more than a million steel end-users in the EU, the association noted.

Georges Kirps, EUROMETAL’s general director, pointed out that steel consumption in the Baltic states is among the fastest growing in the EU. This move enlarges the presence of EUROMETAL to 23 EU member states.

Annalisa Villa, PLATTS

German mills discontinue scrap pricing survey

A regular monthly scrap pricing survey compiled from data collected at Germany’s steel mills has been discontinued by steel federation Wirtschaftsvereinigung (WV) Stahl at the end of 2015.

The survey has existed longer than the monthly survey by recyclers’ federation BDSV, which is compiled from input by scrap merchants. Often, the surveys’ results gave diverging information.

“The amount of publicly accessible price information has risen in recent years. Given the selection of such sources we have decided to stop our investigations in this regard,” WV Stahl tells Kallanish by way of explanation.

Market players from the scrap collecting industry had often argued that the prices given by WV covered only parts of the industry and were therefore not representative. “Apparently, two or three mils had stopped participating in those statistics,” one market source tells Kallanish. Others argue that the monthly average figures were overlapping and thus did not reflect the market adequately. They bemoan the fact that the prices were used as a basis for calculation by the automotive industry, or to define scrap surcharges in the past.

When WV Stahl announced that it was discontinuing its service, some mills had temporarily considered setting up a scrap pricing service themselves in recent months but this has not happened. “It is not all that easy. BDSV needed two years before it got its service up and running properly,” one source says. BDSV’s data are double-checked by an external institute which crops statistical outliers to arrive at credible figures, the source adds.

Kallanish

UK demand solid but ‘judgement day’ is coming: NASS

The National Association of steel service centers has warned the model of buying forward in a falling market cannot continue noting there is “a judgement day appearing” as we enter the new year.

While pricing has been weak throughout the year, the message in the latest annual report from director general, Peter Corfield, noted a reasonably good year for volumes.

“The maintaining of revenues by purchasing material ahead of the game in a market which has price levels on a downward spiral cannot continue, with a judgement day appearing ever closer as we approach 2016,” Corfield said.

UK demand for NASS Core Products in 2015 is expected to be circa six million metric tons; slightly down on 2014 levels but higher than any of the previous five years. Long products outperformed flats with volumes 8% above 2014 numbers. Structural Sections in particular benefited from the strong UK demand within construction, with NASS putting the volumes at 1.2 million mt. NASS members reported an 11% improvement on 2014.

Plate and profiling activity after the first 10 months of 2015 was 4% higher than last year. On the flats side hot rolled volumes were stable, cold rolled was down 15% and Hot Dipped Galvanised was 3% down.

“Whilst cost cutting exercises have been the main focus to address sustainability of steel businesses, the longer term strategies will clearly have to pursue increased added value activities and productivity measures to ensure products are processed and supplied to the marketplace as efficiently as possible,” Corfield said.

— Peter Brennan, PLATTS

Newsletter AIIS December 2015

Te counter-intuitive weather of late December 2015 seems very much like an exclamation point to all the economic uncertainty and geopolitical discord we have encountered this year, doesn’t it?

In Williamsville, New York, near Buffalo and ninety miles from Toronto, where I once went running on Christmas morning with the thermometer registering eight degrees, shorts were not an uncommon sight the third week in December. That scene was repeated December 23rd on the ice rink in New York City’s Bryant Park. Meanwhile, heavy snows blanketed parts of Texas and New Mexico.

Does all of this mean that what we thought we knew about how things are “supposed to be” regarding weather are not so? Te short and accurate answer is “no.” Weather, like many things we experience in life, is actually the result of a complex ballet of forces and factors which we can observe and measure, but do not always fully understand. Factors like the Pacifc North American Pattern (PNA) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO), along with its dreaded sometime companion, the polar vortex.

The key to understanding these forces and factors and their effects is close observation, and “connecting the dots.” Once weather analysts connect the dots, they can provide early warning.

This is exactly what we do with and for our members. We work hard to “connect the dots,” to monitor and make sense of the relevant political, legislative, and economic forces that shape the “weather” affecting our businesses and our well-being.

Like the distant weather patterns that afect what we experience when we walk outside, distant and seemingly unrelated events can and frequently do affect trade in steel. Market disruptions, conflicts, strife, border issues and volatile geopolitical developments transcend geographic boundaries, ripple across continents and oceans, and afect what happens in our ports, in our plants, and on our balance sheets.

We accomplish our goal of connecting the dots for our members in a number of ways. For example: We provide a “seat at the table” during significant trade-related policy discussions, negotiations, and other initiatives affecting steel trade. We build, sustain, and enhance partnerships with key public and private sector allies.

AIIS Newsletter December 2015