According to BDS data dated May 22, total sales of steel products in Germany decreased by 5% month-on-month and by 3% year-on-year to 820,837 tons in April. Total stocks also decreased by 5.5% year-on-year, but increased by 1% month-on-month to 1,905 million tons, the data showed.
[b]Sales[/b]
Sales of flat rolled steel in Germany in April decreased by 9% month-on-month and 5.6% year-on-year to 485,257 tons. Rolled steel is mainly used in the automotive sector, which is currently in decline due to unfavorable global economic conditions.
According to the latest data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association ACEA, the number of new car registrations in the EU decreased by 1.9% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year in 2025.
According to the German Automobile Industry Association VDA, passenger car production in Germany in April decreased by 7% year-on-year to 367,500 units. Just over 1.4 million passenger cars were manufactured in Germany in the first four months of the year, an increase of 1% year-on-year.
Sales of long products increased by 3.4% month-on-month and 0.8% year-on-year to 259,504 MT. This was in line with expectations, as sales figures for long products have generally improved since April due to demand from the construction sector, which is usually growing at this time of the year.
Sales of other steel products decreased by 4.7% month-on-month and increased by 1.9% year-on-year to 76,976 tons.
Steel reserves
The country's stocks of rolled products increased by 0.5% month-on-month and 0.2% year-on-year to 662,764 tons in April. The stocks of flat rolled products fell by 8% year-on-year, but increased by 1.2% month-on-month to 1.2 million tons. Sales of other steel products fell by 14.1% year-on-year, but increased by 4.7% month-on-month to 39.469 million tons.
Platts, a member of S&P Global Commodity Insights, estimated the hot-rolled roll at 635 euros per ton from the Ruhr plant on May 20, which is higher than the base level of 560 euros per ton at the beginning of the year. In April, prices for hot-rolled rolled products remained in the range of 645 to 655 euros per ton from base production.
Annalisa Villa
spglobal.com
