International distribution and services in high-performance materials

"Hope took longing in its arms and said, don't worry, I'll hold you and we wait together." Right now, it seems that we lack perspective and momentum because there's not much of it in the home offices. Yet things are happening in our markets. During the crisis, production was scaled down and capacities were reduced. Only China was less affected by the crisis and maintained production levels. However, imports of Asian materials have been severely restricted by tariffs and lower quotas in Europe. At the same time, part of the European industry started the year relatively well. Inventories were run down at the end of last year. Relevant prices for chrome, nickel and molybdenum have risen between 20% and 30% in the last 6 months, and between 5% and 10% in January. The USD nickel quotation has reached a 3-year high. Scrap is in short supply because, on the one hand, less has been produced during the crisis and scrap collection in the "home office" is not the first priority. In addition, there is a lack of containers, protectionism (Indonesia with nickel exports) and finally the increasing demand. Supply is less elastic, we are in the "hog cycle" of rising prices. Although demand may be a flash in the pan, the price is not going to come back down anytime soon because capacity will be slow to ramp back up, if at all. There are always a few exceptions, but the trend for the first half of the year points to further rising prices for stainless steel and special alloys. There are already the first suppliers who charge a scrap surcharge. The nitrogen-alloyed stainless steel such as Alloy 24 which we offer have better prices. In titanium the effect is not yet as pronounced as in stainless steel, but here too titanium scrap is in short supply and the steel mills need it. On Econoxx.com you can find interesting scrap prices. New perspectives are opening up.

February 2021