Flat steel service centres gave the most pessimistic view of market conditions in European steel distributors association EUROMETAL’s maiden market sentiment survey published in late July, Kallanish notes.
A total of 29 respondents in this customer segment said their assessment of current activity is slightly negative, as is their view of activity in the next quarter and their view of their stock position in the next quarter. Their expectation for prices in the next quarter is however to remain flat.
In the steel trading segment, 50 respondents indicated their assessment of current activity is slightly negative. However, their view of activity in the next quarter is slightly positive, with their view of their stock position being neutral. Their expectation for prices in the next quarter is to decline slightly.
In the stockholding distribution segment, 27 respondents said current activity is slightly negative, with the other three survey question responses coming back as neutral.
Split by customer region, almost all respondents said expectation for prices in the next quarter is to remain flat. However, in Iberia, respondents indicated a slight increase, despite being slightly negative in the other three survey question responses.
In Turkey, respondents foresaw a slight decline in prices. All regions except the Visegrad, UK + Ireland and the Balkans foresaw a slight decline in activity in the next quarter.
Turkish respondents were the most negative across the four survey questions, providing slightly negative responses for all of them.
By responder activity, only the energy and tube sectors foresaw a slight increase in activity in the next quarter. All sectors had flat price expectations for the next quarter.
Once a month, EUROMETAL will publish a summary of the survey responses. The report will present the combined opinions and previous data, aiding the market in forming a comprehensive view of trends, the association says.
“This first report conducted in July already demonstrates very different feelings in our industrial sectors (Stockholding, Flat SSC and Trading),” says the association’s director general, Ricardo Silva. The sentiment rating is split into positive/slightly positive/neutral/slightly negative/negative.
EUROMETAL divided the replies into three sets – “customer sector”, meaning association member type; “customer region”; and “responder activity”, referring to the end-use sector served.
Adam Smith Poland , Christian Koehl Germany