German long steel producer BSW shuts down for 10 days

German long steel producer BSW has informed its ferrous scrap suppliers that it will halt production for 10 days in mid-to-late August.

The stoppage is expected to reduce the mill's ferrous scrap consumption by around 80,000t this month. The downtime is broadly in line with last year's summer stoppage.

Other German steel mills are likely to close for 7-14 days in August for maintenance, market participants said.

Scheduled maintenance, coupled with anticipated lower steel orders, drove mills to reduce their scrap requirements and target prices for August delivery.

Many negotiations for scrap deliveries in August between mills and scrap suppliers are continuing. Most mills are heard to have closed or indicated prices ranging from a rollover to a €5/t reduction from the previous month, depending on grades and volume.

The Argus monthly average delivered to mill assessment for E40 shredded ferrous scrap in Germany was €239.26-249.26/t ($268.43-279.65/t) in July.

The Argus daily cfr Turkey assessment for premium HMS 1/2 80:20 ferrous scrap fell by $6.50/t to $287.50/t on 9 August, from $294/t on 15 July, when the German domestic market was last assessed.

BSW has crude steel production capacity of around 2.5mn t/yr. Riva in eastern Germany and Feralpi in central Germany are the two other major German rebar producers.