UK's local user of HR coils has imported little more at the starting of the year mainly due to good offers from the foreign suppliers inspite of having adverse sentiment in the UK's coils market. As per the statistics, in January -April the foreign HRC shipped to UK was around 245,200 MnT, up by 0.4% or 900 MnT from the same period last year.
China is currently the leading supplier of this kind of products to the UK, while in the same period of 2012 its sales of HRC to the UK were quite negligible. Thus, in January-April 2013 it sold to Britain some 40,000 MnT of coils, while in January-April last year it sold just about 1,200 MnT.
Turkish suppliers of flats are also expanding their presence in the British market, increasing their sales by 9,800 MnT or 98% comparing with the first four month of last year.
Russian product also enjoyed quite good demand in Great Britain. In the first four months, Russian producers sold around 33,100 MnT of flats, up by 5.1% Y-o-Y. At the same time, German producers lost a part of their market share in Great Britain, their export decreased from 57,100 MnT to 32,500 MnT (-43.8% in yearly comparison).
The rhythm of flat steel products market is being undoubtedly set by bursts of activities in automotive sector, which is the basic consumer of these products.
According to the UK's Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), in Q1 of 2013 the industry produced 393,400 cars, down by 2% from the same months of last year.
However, despite a slack performance in Q1, an improvement in output of automotive sector is being forecast by the end of this year, which will positively affect the dynamics of coils supplies.
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