Sales of steel products in the German distribution and warehouse storage system increased by 5.6% year-on-year to 863,963 thousand tons in March due to restocking, while inventories fell by 4.7% to 1,886,182 thousand tons, according to data from the association of shareholders of German steel BDS, published on April 24.
Sales of long products fell to 250,858 tons in March from 254,763 tons in the same month last year, while sales of flat products rose to 533,267 tons from 496,755 tons. The volume of other steel products increased from 65,948 tons to 79,838 tons.
Stocks of long products fell last month to 659,410 thousand tons from 646,239 thousand tons reached a year ago, while stocks of flat products decreased to 1,189,091 thousand tons from 1,288,941 thousand tons. Production of other steel products decreased from 44,353 tons to 37,681 tons.
Germany produced 3.1 million tons of steel products in March, down 11.7% from the same period last year, marking the third consecutive month in which the country's steel industry has seen a double-digit decline. German blast furnace steel producers recorded the largest drop in production, by 14.8% year-on-year to 2.1 million tons. Steel producers using electric arc furnaces produced 3.5% less steel in March - 1.1 million tons.
Platts, a member of S&P Global Commodity Insights, estimated production of hot-rolled coils in Northwestern Europe at 640 euros per ton ($728/ton) at plants in the Ruhr on March 31, compared with 560 euros per ton at the beginning of the year, as factories reduced production to support more high prices.
In April, Platts estimated the price of HRC in Northwestern Europe at 655 euros per ton in Ruhr. 23, which is 5 euros higher compared to the previous day, and in Southern Europe - by 625 euros per ton excluding Italy, stable throughout the day.
Annalisa Villa
