The last two weeks we are witnessing something we have never seen before. Prices have never moved up this fast and availability of plates is starting to become dramatic. We think the situation will even get worse in the next weeks and months…
The main raison for all of this is very clear: the horrible war in the Ukraine has completely stopped the possibility to import slabs, plates and coils from both Ukraine and Russia.
A lot of European mills depend on this material for their production. These mills will very soon run out of material and will probably only be able to finish the orders they already had before this crisis.
It is impossible for the mills that are not dependent on Russian and Ukranian material to comensate this loss in production capacity. These mills are now of course flooded with inquiries. On top of that they are facing higher prices for oil, gas and transportation …
The impact of this completely insufficient production capacity is huge. Some mills have decided to stop offering. Others only offer limited volumes in combination with very high prices and long lead times. And all of the mills are telling us the same: it will even get worse ( meaning; more expensive)
The import of material from outside Europe has also almost come to a standstill. Countries that normally export a lot of plates to Europe are offering almost nothing for the moment. If they do offer it is (just like European mills ) at extremely high prices in combination with long delivery times.
Most of these mills are enjoying a good domestic market or serving countries that are in their proximity. Buying from some other countries could result for us in having to pay a 25% duty due to limited quotas imposed by the EU. All these producers also know exactly what is happening in Europe and they are of course taking advantage of the current situation. On top of that they are also confronted with higher energy and raw material costs + skyrocketing freight rates that have quadrupled in the last 1,5 year.
Conclusions:
We will try our utmost to keep serving our customers as much as possible but due to these extreme circumstances we already know we will not always succeed in doing that. In the next months it will not always be possible to buy the plates you need the way you have always done that in the past.
Regarding the prices we will also have to accept that there is a new reality. If the plates are available the prices will be significantly higher than what you have ever paid for them in the past.
Please note that things will probably even get a lot worse and the next weeks and months. Our offers will only be valid for 24 hours and are of course always subject to availability the moment we receive your order.
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