Whilst the demand for commodity plate in northwestern Europe is not recovering and prices remain at a low, speciality plate fares somewhat better, market participants say.
In comparison with commodity grades S235 and S355, which easily shed €60/tonne ($70/t) between April and now, boiler plate suffered only half that drop.
“Boiler-grade plate P265GH lost maybe €20-30 during that period, and has been relatively stable recently,” one German buyer tells Kallanish.
Offers of commodity grades still keep softening somewhat to lure customers in an ongoing lull of demand, but boiler grade plate keeps it price level, that source observes. He sees that level at around €800/t delivered ($938/t), a price confirmed by a manager at another large distributor group.
The price applies to the typical German mills specialising in higher grades, and ordering from other European countries could make sense, but not necessarily. The first buyer tells of a recent delivery from a Czech mill to a Czech customer at €725. Deliveries from there to German destinations can be a good option – especially in eastern locations, but probably not to France or Benelux
“You may have to look at availability and lead times. And the origin of the slabs: Are they Russian?” the first buyer cautions. He is used to work with German mills, where the prices may be higher, but the risk factor lower.
At the MBI Stahltag cinference in mid-September, Salzgitter manager Sebastion Bross made the optimistic prediction that expansion of wind power plants could lift the annual plate demand from now 2.4 million tonnes to 2.8mt by 2030.
The distributor’s manager, however, is not so sure the development of wind powerwill benefit domestic mills: “Aren’t towers made in Asia mostly?”
Christian Koehl Germany
