Sülzle Stahlpartner GmbH absorbed Eisen Grader GmbH's operations in Weiden on July 1 2026. The acquired entity now operates as a branch under Christian Dobmann, retaining all staff and existing services including reinforcing steel trading, structural steel bending, and bored pile production. The acquisition strengthens Sülzle's presence in Upper Palatinate, Middle Franconia, and Upper Franconia, and adds a second bored pile production site alongside its existing northern facility in Dessau-Roßlau. The family-run firm operates 20 branches with over 145 years of experience, supplying sustainable reinforcing steel to German construction projects.

[SMM Stainless Steel Daily Review] SS Futures in the Doldrums Amid News-Driven Fluctuations, Stainless Steel Trading Weak During Off-Season Demand According to SMM on June 26, SS futures climbed before pulling back. Driven by the Indonesian government's clarification of rumors regarding RKAB quotas, SS futures strengthened during the night session, but in the morning, dragged by a decline in SHFE nickel, they continued the previous downtrend, drifting lower. As of the midday close, the most-traded SS futures contract settled at 14,585 yuan/mt. In the spot market, inquiries and trading activity picked up early in the session, supported by SS futures’ overnight strength, and offer prices rose accordingly. However, as futures weakened again, wait-and-see sentiment quickly intensified, and trading activity once more turned sluggish. SS futures, the most-traded contract. At 10:15 AM, SS2608 was at 14,670 yuan/mt, up 70 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. Spot premiums for 304/2B in the Wuxi area were in the range of 400-900 yuan/mt. In the spot market, the average price of cold-rolled 201/2B coil in Wuxi stayed flat; the average price of cold-rolled 304/2B (raw edge) coil dropped 50 yuan/mt in Wuxi, while Foshan remained flat; cold-rolled 316L/2B coil prices in Wuxi fell 50 yuan/mt; hot-rolled 316L/NO.1 coil offers in Wuxi were flat; and cold-rolled 430/2B coils in both Wuxi and Foshan held steady. This week, stainless steel futures and spot prices were in the doldrums. Macro headwinds from outside China, combined with industry sentiment disruptions, fueled market pessimism, with off-season fundamentals fully coming to the fore. The overall picture showed macro factors pressuring futures, weakening off-season demand, traders cutting prices to reduce inventories, supply contraction supporting inventory levels, and steel mills…

[SMM Analysis] Indian Steel Prices Continued to Weaken, Southeast Asian Procurement Sentiment Remained Cautious From the price spread model, billet/slab: Chinese resources expanded their advantage in the Indonesian market, with the price spread hitting a new monthly low. The inversion between China HRC (FOB) and core ex-China markets deteriorated across the board this week, with multiple indicators hitting historical or periodic highs mid-week, except for the China-India spread which rebounded. Chinese resources are expected to continue offering low FOB prices to Southeast Asia and the Middle East next week, and the price spread matrix is unlikely to narrow significantly in the short term. Meanwhile, considering the approaching EU new regulations, June will be a window period for intense price collapse between Indian and Chinese resources in non-EU markets (such as the Middle East and ASEAN). By sub-market, Indian HRC export prices continued to weaken last week, with suppliers lowering offers to stimulate demand amid an overall sluggish regional market. Vietnam remained the primary export destination for Indian SAE1006 HRC, with August shipment offers gradually declining from $580/mt CFR to $565–570/mt CFR. The price decline was still driven by persistently weak demand, intensified competition among exporters, and widespread market expectations of further regional price declines. According to market rumors, a 30,000 mt cargo of Indian HRC was transacted at $565–570/mt CFR Vietnam last week, below the latest market offer of $572/mt CFR quoted on Friday. However, overall transaction activity remained limited, with Vietnamese buyers mostly adopting a wait-and-see strategy, focusing on the upcoming new monthly HRC price announcements from Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation and Hoa Phat Group before deciding on new procurement plans. Market participants noted that cautious downstream demand and expectations of continued price declines continued to suppress buyer restocking willingness. Overall, the demand environment facing Indian exporters remained challenging. Southeast Asian market: Affected by weak downstream demand and market expectations of further price declines, overall steel trading sentiment remained cautious, with procurement activity continuing to be suppressed. In Vietnam, domestic HRC prices showed a weakening trend due to sluggish new orders and traders maintaining low inventory management. Downstream buyers also mostly adopted a wait-and-see approach, on one hand waiting for local steel mills to announce new monthly offers, and on the other hand closely monitoring China steel futures price fluctuations. Meanwhile, Indonesian suppliers remained among the most competitive sellers in the region, offering HRC to Vietnam at approximately $585/mt CFR, continuing to exert pressure on regional prices. On June 1, Hoa Phat announced its latest price adjustment, lowering HRC offers by $13/mt. Following this announcement, local market transaction prices are expected to continue declining. Overall, seasonal demand weakness, ample market supply, and cautious procurement behavior will collectively keep trading activity in the Southeast Asian market subdued. Turkish market: Affected by the Eid al-Adha holiday, sheets & plates trading in the Middle East and Turkey largely stalled this week, with long and flat product prices remaining stable. By product, as July shipping quota is about to be readjusted, EU buyers' purchasing remained weak, and Turkey's HRC exports to the EU had been quiet since before the holiday. However, as current orders were relatively sufficient, Turkish steel mills were not in a hurry to lower prices to close deals before the quota announcement, but instead focused more on domestic sales. In the long product market, due to regional conflicts and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East causing continued logistics disruptions, China's rebar exports to the Middle East declined. Turkish suppliers successfully captured this market gap, with rebar exports rebounding significantly in April, and exports to Yemen, Africa, and parts of Europe also achieved notable growth. Copyright and Intellectual Property Statement: This report is independently created or compiled by SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SMM"), and SMM legally enjoys complete copyright and related intellectual property rights. The copyright, trademark rights, domain name rights, commercial data information property rights, and other related intellectual property rights of all content contained in this report (including but not limited to information, articles, data, charts, pictures, audio, video, logos, advertisements, trademarks, trade names, domain names, layout designs, etc.) are owned or held by SMM or its related right holders. The above rights are strictly protected by relevant laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China, such as the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, as well as applicable international treaties. Without prior written authorization from SMM, no institution or individual may: 1. Use all or part of this report in any form (including but not limited to reprinting, modifying, selling, transferring, displaying, translating, compiling, disseminating); 2. Disclose the content of this report to any third party; 3. License or authorize any third party to use the content of this report; 4. For any unauthorized use, SMM will legally pursue the legal responsibilities of the infringer, demanding that they bear legal responsibilities including but not limited to contractual breach liability, returning unjust enrichment, and compensating for direct and indirect economic losses. Data Source Statement: (Except for publicly available information, other data in this report are derived from publicly available information (including but not limited to industry news, seminars, exhibitions, corporate financial reports, brokerage reports, data from the National Bureau of Statistics, customs import and export data, various data published by major associations and institutions, etc.), market exchanges, and comprehensive analysis and reasonable inferences made by the research team based on SMM's internal database models. This information is for reference only and does not constitute decision-making advice. SMM reserves the final interpretation right of the terms in this statement and the right to adjust and modify the content of the statement according to actual circumstances.

[SMM Analysis] Weak Downstream Consumption Increases Pressure on Ex-China Steel Trading Price spread model, the price inversion of Chinese steel relative to overseas markets (India, Japan, Turkey, Black Sea) deepened further in late May. In particular, Chinese resources were cheaper compared to Indonesia, and the price spread was "narrowing at an accelerating pace." For pure ex-China inter-regional price spreads, India's decline was more pronounced compared to other regions, as weak domestic demand drove aggressive low-price bidding. Segment-wise, steel procurement sentiment in Southeast Asia became more cautious last week, with coil prices weakening. In Vietnam, coated steel and steel pipe prices began to slow down after a prolonged rally, and buyers became increasingly cautious about restocking ahead of the rainy season. Meanwhile, due to weak demand and growing pressure from low-priced imports, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a subsidiary of Taiwan's China Steel Corporation, also cut its HRC quotations by $5-10/mt to $598-603/mt CIF Vietnam. Although some Vietnamese downstream steel mills continued to raise or maintain prices due to earlier increases in raw material costs and tight spot supply, some producers had begun to limit orders or delay quotations while waiting for a clearer market direction. Notably, Indonesian HRC quotations remained competitive with relatively active exports, with FOB prices at around $565/mt. According to SMM survey, recent transaction prices to Vietnam were around $585/mt CFR. Turkey market: As the Middle East was set to enter a long holiday mid-week, most market participants had already exited early. According to SMM survey, no clear large-volume transactions were seen in the Turkish steel scrap market last week. Meanwhile, as domestic rebar demand remained sluggish, steel mills pushed their target purchase prices for European HMS 1&2 (80:20) scrap below $400/mt CFR to pass on the pressure. The recent euro depreciation and slight correction in ocean freight rates opened up some discount room for European sellers to a certain extent, but judging from actual market transactions, sellers still found it difficult to accept such low prices. At the same time, US exporters continued to hold prices firm at $420/mt CFR. In addition, mainstream quotations for Turkish domestic HRC remained at $660-675/mt EXW. Due to exchange rate fluctuations and high production costs, steel mills were striving to hold prices firm, but downstream buyers remained cautious in purchasing, with expected psychological prices 15-20 $/mt lower. Copyright and Intellectual Property Statement: This report is independently created or compiled by SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SMM"), and SMM legally enjoys complete copyright and related intellectual property rights. The copyright, trademark rights, domain name rights, commercial data information property rights, and other related intellectual property rights of all content contained in this report (including but not limited to information, articles, data, charts, pictures, audio, video, logos, advertisements, trademarks, trade names, domain names, layout designs, etc.) are owned or held by SMM or its related right holders. The above rights are strictly protected by relevant laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China, such as the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, as well as applicable international treaties. Without prior written authorization from SMM, no institution or individual may: 1. Use all or part of this report in any form (including but not limited to reprinting, modifying, selling, transferring, displaying, translating, compiling, disseminating); 2. Disclose the content of this report to any third party; 3. License or authorize any third party to use the content of this report; 4. For any unauthorized use, SMM will legally pursue the legal responsibilities of the infringer, demanding that they bear legal responsibilities including but not limited to contractual breach liability, returning unjust enrichment, and compensating for direct and indirect economic losses. Data Source Statement: (Except for publicly available information, other data in this report are derived from publicly available information (including but not limited to industry news, seminars, exhibitions, corporate financial reports, brokerage reports, data from the National Bureau of Statistics, customs import and export data, various data published by major associations and institutions, etc.), market exchanges, and comprehensive analysis and reasonable inferences made by the research team based on SMM's internal database models. This information is for reference only and does not constitute decision-making advice. SMM reserves the final interpretation right of the terms in this statement and the right to adjust and modify the content of the statement according to actual circumstances.

Indonesian state-owned steel giant PT Krakatau Steel (Persero) Tbk (IDX: KRAS, hereinafter referred to as "Krakatau") released its 2025 consolidated financial statements on March 31, 2026. On the surface, the company recorded a net profit of 339.6 million USD (approximately 5.68 trillion IDR), its best performance since 2019. However, unpacking the core steel business reveals that the steel segment's operating loss in 2025 actually widened from 40.79 million USD in 2024 to 102.5 million USD.

[SMM Stainless Steel Daily Review] SS Futures Hit New Stage High Again, Stainless Steel Spot Transactions Cooled Before Labour Day Holiday SMM, April 28: SS futures showed a strong upward momentum. Driven by the continued strength of SHFE nickel, SS futures rose further, breaking through the high since 2023 again, once reaching 15,670 yuan/mt. As of the morning close, the most-traded SS contract was quoted at 15,630 yuan/mt. Spot market, as SS futures successively broke stage highs, spot stainless steel prices stayed high. Although the Labour Day holiday was approaching, end-user downstream mostly held a cautious wait-and-see attitude, and overall transactions were relatively sluggish. The most-traded SS futures contract strengthened and probed higher. At 10:15 AM, SS2605 was quoted at 15,420 yuan/mt, up 45 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. Spot premiums for 304/2B in Wuxi ranged from 0 to 200 yuan/mt. In the spot market, the average price of cold-rolled 201/2B coils in Wuxi rose by 50 yuan/mt; cold-rolled trimmed-edge 304/2B coils fell by 50 yuan/mt in Wuxi and 100 yuan/mt in Foshan; cold-rolled 316L/2B coils in Wuxi held stable; hot-rolled 316L/NO.1 coils in Wuxi held stable; cold-rolled 430/2B coils in both Wuxi and Foshan held stable. Currently, the stainless steel market saw spot prices hold up well, driven by the surge in futures, but end-user wait-and-see sentiment persisted. Actual transactions remained generally weak and were significantly influenced by futures changes, showing phased concentrated transaction patterns, with overall demand not fully matching the price gains. Futures, this week...