European Highlights

摘要

There is no immediate prospect that the Eurozone authorities will offer a remedy- or remedies - for their financial troubles soon enough to turn around business confidence in the first quarter; while most authorities rule out a second dip to the recession, there is widespread expectation of stagnation. In the amply supplied, if notoversupplied, stainless steel market this can only mean continued production restraint or continued price erosion, or a combination of both. The back-and-forth feedback effects on costs, via reduced demand for nickel and chrome driving down their prices, and returning in lower surcharges, that in turn influence the timing of steel orders, will continue to disrupt stainless steel buying patterns into 2012. The effects will ease some of the cost pressure on steel companies, just as the instability of the euro will tend to fend off imports, but navigating the market will continue to be difficult, with some hope of a price revival in the newyear, but a longer term future with reduced capacity.