EU stainless steel prices continue to rise in July 2024, driven in particular by scarce availability. And the German Ministry of Defence orders ammunition, trucks and tanks for more than 14 billion euros.
Trend: EU stainless steel prices continue to rise in July
Prices on the European stainless steel market continued to point upwards in July 2024, rising again by more than 3% at the beginning of the month compared to the previous month. Since the beginning of the year, prices for 304 sheets in the EU have thus risen by more than 22%.
Even if some forecasters believe otherwise with regard to raw materials, this does not change the scarce availability and the price trend in Europe.
Germany invests billions more in new military equipment
The German Ministry of Defence recently awarded new contracts worth more than 14 billion euros to the domestic defence industry. The main beneficiary of these orders is likely to be Rheinmetall, which received the largest order in the company’s history with an ammunition order worth around 8.5 billion euros.
Military trucks for 3.5 billion euros
The German government has also placed an order for 6500 military trucks (approx. 3.5 billion euros), also from Rheinmetall.
105 new main battle tanks for the Bundeswehr
The 105 Leopard main battle tanks ordered from the armaments company KNDS seem almost small in comparison, even though the order volume is likely to be over 2 billion euros.
As this is basic equipment, particularly in the case of ammunition orders (estimates assume several million rounds of artillery ammunition) and trucks, this is likely to be particularly noticeable in the demand for base metals and products made from them (e.g. steel, aluminium, stainless steel and copper).
Courtesy : steelnews.biz