ThyssenKrupp ends force majeure

German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe has terminated its force majeure, the company and market sources told Argus today.

Force majeure is still in place for the company's Hohenlimburg precision strip mill in Hagen, an area severely affected by recent flooding in Germany.

ThyssenKrupp declared force majeure on 16 July as flooding in the Rhine-Ruhr region damaged the rail network and disrupted deliveries out of the mill. In a letter sent to customers, the company said it was unable to deliver material to its own sites and that customer shipments would also be affected, adding that the "length and scale" of the disruption were unclear.

ThyssenKrupp's main production site is in Duisburg, at the junction of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. The company saw its steel division order intake increase by 13pc year on year in the second quarter of its financial year (January-March), reaching €2.43bn, while deliveries were unchanged at 2.7mn t. The company at present is relining blast furnace number 1, which, alongside blast furnace two, has hot metal output of 7.7 mn t/yr.

The flooding and subsequent supply disruption — several service centres and cold rollers also declared force majeure — to a large extent insulated northwest European coil prices from the downside seen in the more spot-focused and import-dependent Italian market. Argus' benchmark NW EU hot-rolled coil index increased from €1,144.25/t on 1 July to €1,149.75/t yesterday. Over the same period, the headline daily Italian index has dropped from €1,099.75/t to €1,045.75/t, leaving the spread between the two at a seemingly unsustainable €104/t.

Before the flooding, it seemed as though NW pricing would also decline somewhat during the usual seasonal lull.

By Colin Richardson