There were 140 representatives from 47 different producers among the 493 registered delegates from a total of 58 different countries. There were also 100 registrations representing 57 different raw material suppliers.

At the opening of the conference, Murat Cebecioglu, chairman of IREPAS, said that the supply and demand balance in the global long steel industry is becoming more and more unstable. Explaining that Chinese finished steel products are dominating most markets, he noted that the situation is close to what the market went through ten years ago and stressed that, if the Chinese continue in the same way, the global steel industry will suffer great damage.

The IREPAS chairman added that the markets are in a bearish mood and are holding back with a not so promising outlook.

On the last day of the conference, producers of long steel products, as well as traders and raw material suppliers, shared the conclusions reached at their special committee meetings regarding the current situation in the markets with the general participants at the event.

Raw Material Suppliers at IREPAS: Previous optimism for H2 postponed to 2025       

Jens Björkman, the chairman of the raw material suppliers committee, summarized the finding of the committee meeting on the general situation in the global steel and raw material markets, noting that the optimistic sentiments seen in spring this year for the second half of the year have been postponed until 2025. Emphasizing that iron ore prices are under pressure from lower production in China, he stated that slowing Chinese production could work in favor of the rest of the world in terms of reduced Chinese export volumes.

Looking at the EU, pointing out that scrap generation in the region has slowed down as the sales of downstream industries have decreased amid lower personal spendings in the region, the chairman of the raw material suppliers committee noted that the lower scrap generation in Europe has led to scrap prices being stable at higher levels. He also commented that business activity in Germany, which is the main driver in the EU, is slowing down even though the year started with improvements in the construction and housing industries, the positive effects of which will be seen on the raw material side until the end of the year.

Regarding the situation in Turkey, Björkman said that the country has postponed scrap purchases during summer and autumn this year due to competitive alternative options of semi-finished products from Asia, especially China. He added that he expects Turkey to continue to purchase imports of billets, slabs and HRC, thus negatively affecting scrap prices.

Traders at IREPAS: Competitive Chinese billets pull Turkish mills away from scrap       

Wilhelm Alff, chairman of the traders committee, stated that China’s exports have been increasing constantly, with the country’s average monthly exports trending at 5.6 million mt in 2022, at 7.7 million mt in 2023 and expected to be around 8.7 million mt in 2024. Noting that China has been exporting semi-finished and finished steel products heavily at competitive prices, he stated that any surge in protectionist measures in reaction to this would just provide short-term relief, only changing product flow.

The traders committee chairman stated that, given the attractive prices of Chinese material, especially billet, Turkish mills are expected to continue to buy Chinese billet as an alternative to higher-priced scrap, putting pressure on scrap prices.

Regarding iron ore, Mr. Alff stated that rebar production in China has decreased amid destocking due to the switch to the new rebar standard, resulting in lower demand for iron ore. He said that iron ore stocks at Chinese ports currently stand at 149 million mt. Emphasizing the current spread between scrap and iron ore costs, Alff commented that everybody wants to be a blast furnace-based steel producer for the next six months.

Producers at IREPAS: Prospects for near future do not look bright

Murat Cebecioğlu, chairman of IREPAS and also chairman of the producers committee, said that, since China is the main driving force behind the global steel industry, everybody is unfortunately taking a position according to what China is doing. He pointed out that China is shipping semis and finished steel products to almost everywhere in the world, thereby putting pressure on prices and creating a huge supply and demand imbalance, while it is becoming even tougher for everyone else to compete.

Sharing the findings of the producers committee with the conference participants, Mr. Cebecioğlu said that producers in GCC countries are a little more optimistic than those in other countries as their economies are moving in the right direction, amid new projects, in Saudi Arabia for example, which are creating demand in the market, with the construction and real estate sectors being the driving force in the GCC region. Looking at the EU, the chairman of the producers committee said that business has seemed to be at a standstill in the region for more than a year now and hardly any improvement is expected in the next six months or so. On the other hand, Turkey is stuck in terms of export opportunities, being pushed into a corner by various protectionist measures, while it cannot sell to some Asian countries which used to be its main export destinations for long products because of Chinese competition. Commenting on the global longs market in general, Cebecioğlu said, “The near future does not look bright. We will probably see the same trend unless China stops exporting.”

Turning to the current situation in China, the IREPAS chairman said that, besides reducing production, the Chinese will also have to boost domestic demand, which is slow given the problems in the Chinese real estate sector. He went on to say that just reducing production by itself will not be enough, the government should provide some stimulus program as well. Regarding Turkey’s billet imports as an alternative to scrap, he said that Turkish mills will buy less scrap, complementing their needs with billet imports from China, which means they will be producing less semis, and this situation may also exert some pressure on scrap prices.

The global long steel products market is becoming even more regionalized. All the safeguard measures, tariffs and antidumping and countervailing cases are reducing the global exchange of products more and more. The Covid-19 pandemic gives producers in certain markets the pretext to lobby their governments with even more arguments to get their domestic markets protected for no reason, but politicians just go along and accept this constant pressure as the public is not really focused on such ‘minor’ issues nowadays.

China’s imports start to slacken, it could eventually revert to being a net exporter

China has lately been reducing its purchases of pig iron, HBI, slabs and billets. However, no major change is expected in China at least until after the Chinese New Year holidays. That said, the margins in the Chinese domestic markets have been reduced and expectations are that China will shift from being a net importer to being a net exporter during the next four months.

Possible lifting of China’s scrap import ban could strongly impact global scrap prices

There are also reports that Beijing will allow the import of ferrous scrap with fewer restrictions. The last time China was a significant player in the global ferrous scrap market, it purchased about 14 million metric tons in a single year. Of course, China is a much larger producer, with more EAF-based production now. In the event of China lifting its scrap import prohibition, global scrap prices could increase significantly in view of the large EAF-based capacity the country has recently built up.

2021 will hopefully be a recovery year

On the other hand, next year will be a recovery year globally after all what we have been through in 2020.Accordingly, demand is expected to be relatively good. Of course, the EU and US producers are enjoying full protection, while, as far as Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran and Brazil are concerned, all depends on China.

Some negative signs in the US

In the US, the market situation is worse. Demand is relatively unchanged, though it has been coming under new pressure from Covid-19. On the other hand, the US mills are constantly adding capacity which is not fully utilized, and so supply is increasing. Imports have thin margins, if any.  Domestic scrap prices have moved up again, for no solid reason, which means they will probably be forced down again this winter. Now that Biden is elected as President, there is hope for eventual withdrawal of Section 232 safeguard measures.

Post-Brexit quota reductions announced by EU

The post-Brexit quota reductions have been announced by the EU, and the ‘global’ and ‘international’ volumes seem to have decreased slightly.

Prices in US and EU improve, many countries able to compete with Chinese in Asia

Prices in the EU and US markets have been improving. Despite the recent slowdown, China is still a net importer and does not pose a real threat to exporters in the rest of the world. Even better news is that exporters in countries like Russia, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Brazil and Turkey can compete with the Chinese exporters in Asian markets. However, there is a strong caveat: China has increased its production to over 1 billion. As a result, the world market will be under pressure when its GDP slows down over the winter months.

Competition levels decline worldwide, except in US

The level of competition in the global market is getting lower and lower due to more and more market protections, and competition can be described as relatively slack with the exception of the US market where it is still high.

Global market situation and outlook stable, except for US

The current status of the market can be described as stable, yet again with the exception of the US market which seems to be unstable. The outlook for the next quarter is mostly satisfactory, except for the US market at present.

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The US was threatening to reimpose the 25 percent safeguard duty on imports of Brazilian steel and the 10 percent tax on imports of ex-Brazil aluminium. No official document has yet been released by the US on the issue.