US Stainless industry remains profitable despite some sector fall

摘要

US STAINLESS steelmakers' profits have been surprisingly resilient given all the uncertainty surrounding this marketplace. The question is whether this will continue, especially since the seemingly ever weakening US economy and falling raw material surcharges seem to be pushing many of their customers, including service centers, to the sidelines. "Most distributors face a difficult period, suffering from non-satisfying margins and, depending on which industry sectors they serve, also from falling volumes," declares Markus A Moll, managing director and senior market research analyst for Reutte, Austria, based Steel & Metals Market Research. In what had earlier not been thought possible, after the brutal stock drawdown of late, processors are again trimming their stocks, he states.