Steel sales and stocks in Germany decreased compared to the previous year

In Germany, the slowdown in industrial production and weak demand weighed on the market, with the July total down 6.5% compared to 829,612 mt sold in June.

Germany's industrial production decreased for the second month in a row in June, down 1.5 per cent m-o-m, worsening from the previous month's 0.1 per cent decrease.

Looking at overall sales figures, monthly long product sales decreased by 6.4% y-o-y to 244,917 mt, little changed from the previous month. Monthly flat product sales were reported at 476,850 mt, up 3.9% y-o-y but down 9.1% m-o-m.

Weak demand from stockists was also reflected in monthly steel inventories, which decreased by 11.8% y-o-y to 2 million mt. Long product inventories were reported at 684,005 mt, down 14.3% y-o-y and 2.1% m-o-m, while flat product inventories were reported at 1.29 million mt, down 10.7% y-o-y but up 5.9% m-o-m.