Low demand pushes European stainless steel prices down
Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for stainless steel, cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304, transaction domestic, delivered North Europe was €2,550-2,600 ($2,694-2,747) per tonne on Friday, down from €2,600-2,650 on November 1.
“I’ve never seen the market so slow,” one trader told Fastmarkets. “Usually, December is slow because people don’t want to buy material right before the end of the year, but I certainly didn’t expect liquidity to be so low.”
A second market source said, “I wanted to sell [material], but I couldn’t find a buyer. I hope demand will pick up in January.”
A third source said that the chances of demand rising in January 2025 are “considerable, but nothing is guaranteed.”
“Traditionally, January is a very active month compared with December, but given the current state of the market, we might be surprised,” the third source said.
The alloy surcharge for grade-304 material also fell month on month.
Fastmarkets’ monthly assessment for stainless steel, cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304 alloy surcharge, domestic, Europe was €2,015-2,064 per tonne on December 6, down by €50-62 per tonne from €2,077-2,114 per tonne on November 1.
On October 4, the monthly assessment was €1,963-2,023 per tonne, down by €28-36 from €1,999-2,051 per tonne on September 6.
Worldsteel: Global steel production rises 1% year over year in October
Global crude steel production reached 152.1 million mt in October, rising 1% year over year and 5.9% from September, according to World Steel Association data published Nov. 22.
This brought total production for the first 10 months of 2024 to 1.5 billion mt, down 1.6% year over year.
China produced 81.9 million mt in October, increasing 2.9% from a year earlier and up 6.5% from September, accounting for 53.8% of the total global crude steel output.
This brought China’s January-October volume to 850.7 million mt, down 3% year over year.
The world’s second-largest steel producer India saw production edge up 1.7% year over year to 12.5 million mt in October, which was also up 6.8% month over month, the data showed.
India’s cumulative January-October output rose 5.6% to 123 million mt, according to worldsteel.
Japan’s October production was 6.9 million mt, down 7.8% year over year but up 4.5% from September, with January-October output down 3.7% year over year at 70.2 million mt.
US output in October was 6.6 million mt, down 2% year over year and down 1.5% month over month, taking January-October production to 66.7 million mt, down 1.9% from the previous year.
Russia was estimated to have produced 5.6 million mt in October, down 15.2% year over year and steady from September, bringing its estimated January-October output to 59.4 million mt, a decline of 6.8% from the previous year.
South Korea produced 5.4 million mt of crude steel in October, down 1.8% year over year and 1.8% from September, with the 10-month volume down 5.1% from the prior year at 53.1 million mt, the data showed.
Europe Jan-Oct output up 2.1%
Crude steel production in the EU rose 5.5% year over year and 6.2% month over month to 11.3 million mt in October, the data showed.
The EU’s January-October volume was 109.3 million mt, climbing 2.1% year over year.
Germany, the largest steel producer in Europe, saw its crude steel production rise 14.7% year over year to 3.2 million mt, which was also 7% higher from September.
Germany produced 31.6 million mt crude steel in January-October, up 5% year over year, the data showed.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed Northwest European HRC at Eur560/mt ex-works Ruhr on Nov. 21, down 18% from the start of 2024.
Turkey produced 3 million mt of steel in October, up 0.7% year over year, brining the 10-month total to 30.9 million mt, rising 12.4% year over year.
Brazil’s October crude steel production also rose 16.2% year over year to 3.1 million mt, while Iran’s fell 1.9% year over year to 3 million mt.
Crude steel data covers the 71 countries that report to worldsteel, accounting for about 98% of global crude steel production.
October production of pig iron from 37 countries was 104.4 million mt, rising 0.2% year over year and 4.5% from September, the data showed, while direct-reduced iron produced from 13 countries amounted to 12.8 million mt, up 16.9% year over year and 19.9% higher than the previous month, the data showed.
Tubemaker Wiederholt sources CO2-reduced steel from ArcelorMittal
Wiederholt, a German producer of precision steel tube, and ArcelorMittal have signed a memorandum of understanding to use CO2-reduced steel in production, Kallanish learns from the steelmaker. Both companies have been working together for several decades.
As part of the partnership, Wiederholt intends to source hot-rolled steel from ArcelorMittal with CO2 savings of up to 65% compared to traditional production methods.
The CO2 reduction will be achieved through “XCarb Green Steel certificates” and steel with the “XCarb recycled and renewably produced” label. According to ArcelorMittal, at least 75% recycled scrap is used in the production of this steel. The CO2 savings that Wiederholt can pass on to its customers are verified by environmental product declarations (EPDs), the steelmaker says.
Wiederholt’s precision steel tube is mainly used in the automotive industry, including shock absorbers, camshafts, steering parts, cardan shafts and stabilisers. It has committed to becoming carbon neutral in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Separately, ArcelorMittal Germany has announced that its Duisburg long products mill has been certified by organisation ResponsibleSteel, following a two-year audit by inspection company GUTcert.
Christian Koehl Germany
HRC bucks EU imports decline in 2023
EU hot rolled coil imports in 2023 increased by almost 18% year-on-year, according to the latest data shared by EUROMETAL and compiled using official customs numbers.
Overall, HRC imports surpassed 18 million tonnes. Italy was the largest importer with over 3.5mt, followed by Spain with 1.3mt, and Belgium with 900,00t, Kallanish notes.
The recovery in HRC imports nevertheless bucked the overall import trend last year in Europe. According to the same data, EU imports of flat products – including non-alloy and stainless – decreased 3% y-o-y to 19mt.
Similarly, all other major steel products imports registered a decrease in 2023.
Metallic coated sheet imports fell 18% y-o-y to 3.6mt, while cold rolled coil imports were down 1.5% to 2.5mt.
On the longs side, overall imports of non-alloy and stainless products registered a decrease of 20% y-o-y to 7.5mt. Rebar imports were down 29% to 1.2mt and wire rod imports decreased 25% to 2mt.
Emanuele Norsa Italy
Austria’s June steel production rises on-year
Austria’s steelmakers decreased crude steel production in June compared to the previous month, according to worldsteel data.
Output amounted to 648,000 tonnes, down by 1.8% compared to May, but 2.7% more on-year, Kallanish notes.
In January-June, the country produced 3.78 million tonnes of steel, down 4% on-year.
In 2022, Austria reduced steel production by 4.7% on-year to 7.51mt.
Overall EU output in June fell by 11.1% on-year to 10.6mt. In January-June, EU steelmakers produced 66.3mt, down 10.9% on-year.
Austria’s largest steelmaker voestalpine expects good earnings after a strong 2022/23 fiscal year (see Kallanish passim). It recorded the highest level of revenue and best operating result in its history, surpassing even its record year of 2021/22. The Austrian group’s revenue rose by 22.1% over the previous year to €18.2 billion ($19.2 billion), and Ebitda from €2.3 billion to €2.5 billion.
The firm said in June expectations were more cautious because of the war in Ukraine, among other geopolitical tensions worldwide, and inflation in both Europe and North America turning out to be more persistent than expected. Still, the company expects Ebitda to reach €1.7-1.9 billion in the current fiscal year.
Earlier, voestalpine approved an investment of around €1.5 billion for the construction of one electric arc furnace at each of its two sites in Austria – Linz and Donawitz. These will ultimately replace two blast furnaces by 2027.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
