Demand for flat rental in Europe can grow in February due to attempts by buyers to increase stocks to protect themselves from further prices, the Italian Assofermet steel and scrap reported in its monthly report.
Assofermet added that one of the key factors contributing to the increase in flat rental prices throughout the continent is the protectionist policy supported by the European steel association EUROFER.
Eurofer is a key supporter of a more strict import regulation and does not agree with his Italian colleague on the question of which direction of the EU should be regulated by steel supply.
Looking around the first month of 2025, Assofermet noted a slight improvement in the portfolio of orders for flat rental for service centers, which indicates that the demand from the end users has improved slightly. Despite this, in general, service centers still recorded poor results in terms of sales and profitability volumes in January.
The largest decrease in sales volumes is recorded in variety rental, while the prices of flat rental over the past 12 months have decreased more significantly.
According to Assofermet, potential trade wars and upcoming political elections in Europe have become sources of uncertainty for steel industry.
“a new European political structure is being formed, the leadership of which is increasingly focusing on populism and nationalism, and such dynamics can seriously harm economies depending on exports, for example, Italian,” concluded analysts.
