Jul 20 2009
There is a mood of cautious optimism in the northern European carbon steel community as business winds down for the summer holiday period. Most players believe that activity levels in September will give a good indication of the health of the market in the medium term.
In the meantime, price levels in general are pretty stable. Selling values for hot rolled coil, from producers to distributors, have risen slightly in most of the countries reviewed. This is due to restocking rather than increased underlying demand. However, end-users have few orders in place and they may not yet be ready to pay more.
Despite positive signs from some manufacturing industries, hot rolled plate was the only flat product for which selling figures continued to fall into July. As a result, in some markets, quarto prices were lower than those for cold rolled coil.
The mills' delivery leadtimes for the latter product have been lengthening due to production cuts and reduced inventories. There are encouraging signs in the demand for coated sheet and coil, with some sizes already in short supply. Stainless steel basis values and alloy surcharges continue to rise despite there being no upturn in real consumption.
Falling scrap costs in June led to a reduction in ArcelorMittal's July scrap surcharge for medium sections and beams, from €87 to €64 per tonne. With no change in basis numbers, transaction figures slipped this month. Raw material values tend to have a direct influence on rebar prices, which also declined during the last four weeks. However, the scrap market has picked up during July and we expect this to be reflected in selling figures for long products in August.
Source: MEPS