Slight recovery of the European market could possibly lead to more import steel from China and India.

The biggest macro-economic news might be the slight recovery of the European economies. The Eurozone registered  a PMI, Purchasing Managers Index, of 51.4 in august 2013. This is the best result of the Eurozone in the past 26 months. Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy in particular did pretty good.

Even Greece  had a PMI of 48.7. This is still a decrease, yet is it the best economic result Greece has seen in the past 44 months. This is proof that the EU is leaving the dark footprint of the crisis in the past. The improving economic situation is slightly showing its effect on the European steel market. Prices for both long and flat products have been rising.

However, a large part of this recovery seems to have a sentimental nature, rather than it actually being an increase of the demand on the market. But these little rays of hope should be embraced. In March I expected the US economy to continue this positive “flow”. The same now goes for the European Market.

 

Large European mills have announced price rises. Because our European mills didn’t respond to the American price rises a few months ago, it seems that there is an option to pass on a part of this increase to the market. We will just have to wait and see how much the prices will actually rise.

If the European steel mills manage to (a) force the European market to a serious price rise and (b) attract a higher demand for steel products on the market, a rise of the import of steel products will be the result. The somewhat weaker Rupee could result in an import flow of cheaper steel products (HRC) from India to Europe.

China’s steel industry PMI for August rose for the second consecutive month. The index went from 52,5 in July to 53, 4 in August, a rise of 0,9. Despite this rise have the Chinese inland prices for both rebar and HRC gone down in September. This didn’t have a major effect on the steel mills margins because the prices for iron ore had gone down as well.  The 3^rd quarter had significantly better margins compared to the 1^st and 2^nd quarter of 2013. This means that steel has been produced in abundance and that the capacity has been expanded.

Based on these positive yet slight and early messages from Europe, could the European market be a potentially interesting output destination for the Chinese? This could lead to a flow of cheap Chinese steel to Europe.

Are you looking for a partner for your import of goods from the Far East, for example from China? Steel Solutions B.V. is your partner. Apart from very short transit times and a high quality, we offer you affordable prices. We also offer you the possibility to store your products in one of our warehouses. Value Added Logistics (VAL) such as repacking, palletizing and guidance of the processing (decoiling, slitting and pickling) can all be trusted to us. Distribution of your steel throughout Europe is also included in our service package. Feel free to contact us if you would like to have more information.

CEO
Wibo Feijen.

 

Rolling Beatrix harbour

MKB B2B (SMEs B2B)  visited Steel Solutions BV  in the Beatrix Harbour in Maastricht last Tuesday September 17^th.

Representatives of about 20 companies had subscribed for the company visit. During this meeting, entrepreneurship, in relation to chances, had a central position. The entrepreneurs were interested in some of the perspectives of Steel Solutions BV when it comes to the following themes;

-          Is the company’s growth an indicator for the economy?
-          How does the company deal with logistics, personnel, occupation and expansion?

These are themes that all SMEs are dealing with and where companies can learn from each other.

 

 

Wibo Feijen, Director of Steel Solutions BV shared his perspectives regarding the issues above and treated the guest to a presentation “Why a logistics company that focussed on logistically connecting steel mills and users of steel worldwide, is having such a good time in Maastricht?”. He also looked at the future of the steel industry, internationally but certainly also within Maastricht. The steel mills in this city alone, process over 1.5 million ton of steel every year. “The key points to achieve this? Smart logistics and good commercial contracts ensures conservation and growth”.

The guests where invited for a tour though the company and the evening ended with a joined dinner. All in all it was an inspiring evening with a lot of information exchange.

A success in our view.  

A trimodal logistics service provider that saves trees.

In order to provide the best logistic services as a distributor of metal products, it is important that you can respond to your client’s needs. Our clientele contains customers from all over the world and that means that goods come in from all places in the world and are transported to different destinations. As a seller, you want the most efficient way to get the steel products, steel sheets, coils and slit coils, to its destination. And there are several ways to do this.

 

Our Facebook account has already shown you pictures of our possibility to unload steel vessels at our locations in Maastricht at the Ankerkade. Particularly outstanding is that this location has a covered dock. This allows us to load and unload steel vessels under any type of weather conditions. This diminishes the chances of delays and makes it possible for us to meet our clients wishes for loading and unloading times as closely as possible.

 

But vessels are not the only transport possibility that Steel Solutions can process besides regular trucks. Steel Solutions has a unique location that also has rail access. This means that steel products can travel a long distances at a higher speed, reducing their transport time. This increases the chances of the products making it to their final destination without any damages.  Other than that is transport by rail much better for the environment. The train, of course, produces less CO2 than most means of transport. Compared to transport by trucks, it saves 1.350 trees. So ever since the first train arrived in 2009, every year we have saved a forest as big as 600 soccer fields. Our train transport also responds to a government policy to reduce the traffic on the road. Our trains equal a number 800 trucks a week that are now not on the motor way, but on the railway track.

 

 

At this moment, the railway track that Steel Solutions uses, is outside the building. It crosses the street to which the head office is situated. This results in two inconveniences. One, the train can only be unloaded at night when there is little to no traffic on the road. And two, we depend on good weather. We have strict rules concerning the unloading of trains so our employees are not allowed to unload the train whenever it is raining or snowing, yes it snows sometimes in The Netherlands. There are very clear instructions for the unloading of the trains in order to safeguard the condition of the products. Nevertheless are we proud to have this railway as one of our logistic possibilities. Mainly because the products from our client SSAB in Sweden arrive by train. Where these products used to make a detour, going from train, to boat, to truck, the products now come to Maastricht by train, without interim reloading and at a more direct route.

 

As a service provider that works for our clients, we want to keep improving our services. One thing in particular that we are excited about is the fact that the train track will soon find its internal location. The railway track will then be inside the head office at the Ankerkade. Meetings are being held and agreements are being made as we speak. The digging out of the parking lot has already started and we hope that the final agreements can be made within a short period of time. This is so that we can (a) unload trains during any time of the day (and night) and (b) that we can safeguard the quality of the products even better.

Maybe our train track can even be of use for your products? Transport by rail is simply faster, cleaner and more reliable.

We are excited about these developments and surely will keep you posted about them.

Steel Solutions B.V. obtains ISO- certification; a move as strong as steel.

Since a short period of time, Steel Solutions is the proud owner of ISO9001:2008 certification. This certification verifies that the company meets the requirements that the international steel business imposes on a chain director. July 9^th Steel Solutions B.V. received the certificate from auditor QAS International.

 

 

With this, Steel Solutions is another step closer to a future where it wants to become the chain director of the European steel industry. The certification is a strong aspect among additional quality systems that are needed to achieve this goal. It illustrates a growing quality-consciousness and the improvements of related work processes within our organisation. These will lead to more efficiency and better results when it comes to directing steel in the upcoming years. Steel Solutions will have the opportunity to distinguish itself on the market.  

The growth in quality is reflected in the growth in quantity that Steel Solutions has been experiencing since it has been responding to the need of international directing of the flow of goods. We are talking about container- and break bulk. This directing function not only delivers financial benefits and added value for our clients, it also provides a stable company operation. In these operations, our management can focus on further development of this innovative concept on the whole market. With ISO-certification, international trade and business with major steel customers is even more guaranteed for now and in the future.

Before we, Steel Solutions B.V., will be posting new blogposts, it might actually be nice if you first get to know us a little bit. That is, if you don’t already know us.

  Steel Solutions B.V., previously called Steel Logistics Europe, is a specialized partner in global metal logistics. We are situated in Maastricht, at the Beatrix Harbour in one of Europe's largest steel production and -transport cluster. We have another establishment in Born as well.

 
Our location in Maastricht mainly focussed on break bulk steel products. Whereas Born mostly focuses on container shipments. Our location is situated directly at the biggest inland Terminal of the Netherlands. We didn’t choose this location by accident. We expect that there will be an enormous increase in container transport for the upcoming years. Because of our unique location at this container terminal, we can do a lot for our clients.  

 

 

We are not just talking about the distribution of steel products in the EU, we are talking about taking care of the entire logistics chain for our clients. This concerns both import and export, from and to countries all over the world. This shift from Europe to the entire world was enabled by our performances in the past.


Our core product is customized supply chain management. 

“Apart from just selling the metals, we manage the total distribution on behalf of steel producers, traders and sellers. And even for end-users of the metal products right at the beginning of their (online) purchase.”

 

Customs regulations, Inco-Terms, inland storage, warehousing and even the choice of shipping company are things that you no longer have to think about. Steel Solutions can do it for you. We even have a unique trimodal transportation system that allows us to transport cargo via road, water and even rail. Our warehouses are the perfect solution for our customers, and maybe even for you, to store products.
 
But to achieve this all, a good network is important. Our network approach brings international producers, end-user  and selling organisations together, assembling import and export. We are talking about connecting companies that could profit from each other right here and now, but also in the future.

 

 

With all this expertise and experience, Steel Solutions is an excellent intermediary between supply and demand on the steel market.

What can you expect on this blog? There are quite some areas of expertise in Steel Solutions B.V. that we think can be useful for others as well. We would like to share our expertise with you. And since the company is still growing, we are undergoing changes. If we got you interested in us, you might want to stay up to date on what is going on or maybe know more ins and outs about us. Than this is the place to visit and find your information.

 
Would you like to know more about us? Give us a call or send us an a-mail. You can find all the information you need at our website www.steel-solutions.nl. You can also visit our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for more facts and information about the company.