The Federal German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety informed the public in February that polluted stainless steel products had turned up in several states. In the first case detected, a container filled with cobalt-60 contaminated stainless steel from India was found in the port area of Hamburg. Its destination was Russia. Another case involved more than 500-600 elevator metal buttons, showing a level of radioactivity three times higher than permitted. The buttons have since been replaced. These are just two out of numerous incidents (see weblink below).

Government inspectors initially reached the conclusion that the radiation discovered did not pose a danger to the population. However, an expert at the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, who did not wished to be named, told Spiegel Magazine: “Some of the levels are so high, that one should not stay in contact with these things for long.” According to research by Spiegel the cobalt-60 contaminated stainless steel comes, in all of the cases, from three Indian steel plants, namely the company Vipras Casting close to Mumbai.

German authorities also understand the economic damage inflicted on the companies concerned. “It is true that the steel industry is worried about possible negative consequences if a solution is not found soon.” According to the authorities, international steps have been taken to prevent further radioactively polluted imports of durable goods. From 23-27 February the “International Conference on Control and Management of Inadvertent Radioactive Material in Scrap Metal” took place. Among other topics, the introduction of stricter controls along EU borders was discussed.

On 17 February the Federal German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety summarized all of the incidents involving cobalt 60 (Co-60) in a table. This Pdf-document contains information on measurement levels and further details.

He continues that the financial crisis is a crisis of the financial sector. “People’s trust has been betrayed in this field – and not their trust in German industry.” He criticizes the rating of bank products in particular:”If banks and rating agencies had applied to themselves the same standards regarding creditworthiness, certification, security etc., which they apply to their clients’ rating, there would be no financial crisis today. Double standards were applied.”

He adds that small and medium-sized companies are generally in a good position for the coming economic downturn – even without using the state funds currently under discussion. Galladé: “We do not need economic programs and subsidies, we do need relief – which will then encourage innovations and create the basis for the upturn after the downturn.” What the WSM wants is to abolish and not just to reduce inheritance tax. “Dropping the inheritance tax would send a strong signal to SMEs, strengthen trust in politics and create growth:” Or the possible extension of CO2-emission trading to SME’s: “The mere bureaucratic requirements would have a serious impact on many businesses and be out of proportion to the positive effect on the climate,” Galladé says. The same applies to plans about extending the accounting standards IAS/IFRS to medium-sized, unlisted companies. Galladé: “The current crisis makes clear that these accounting standards are far from perfect. So it would be absolutely wrong to simply extend them to unlisted SME’s.”

Galladé calls on the unions to give up demanding an 8 percent increase in tariff wages: “We want to secure jobs. We can only talk about this right now and here, the future is crucial – not the past. A lack of new orders, politically-motivated strains in 2009, like energy costs and the imminent downturn – all this, taken together with the demand for higher wages, does not make sense. Enough is enough.”

He continues that companies in this sector are working to capacity. During the first nine months this year, output grew by another 4.1 percent compared to the same period last year, with sales growing by 4.2 percent correspondingly. And there is still an order backlog.

However, the number of new orders indicates that the above-average growth rate of the past few years won’t be achieved any longer: from January to September, corporate new orders were a mere 0.3 percent above the corresponding period last year. Galladé: “Our level is high, that is why the development regarding new orders is not dramatic. However, there are signs from our industry that the current fourth quarter might weigh upon this year’s good average figures.” The WSM would stick to its projected growth in production of 4 percent in 2008, “but nobody knows exactly, what is going to happen in the weeks to come. So it’s a rather optimistic outlook from a present-day perspective,” Galladé explains. For 2009, the WSM expects output to stagnate at its 2008 level – “if framework conditions are ok.”

6 tips on links for market analysis:

• Westmetall does not only provide a very clearly structured survey of the prices at the London Metal Exchange (LME prices), charts and market reports included, but also of German metal prices in euros, per 100 kilogram, and of prices for precious metals.
• Tecson informs about global crude oil prices using numbers, charts and a dollar/euro comparison of prices.
• Prices for copper have plunged. Südkupfer gives an overview of the most important and latest market data and prices.
• The CRU Steel Price Index offers current charts and statistics as well as international news on the steel market development.
• At the London Metal Exchange  (LME), price fluctuations of aluminium, copper, nickel, zinc, lead and aluminium alloys can be observed. Registered users get a selection of market data free of charge.
• Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, President “Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl” (Steel Association) and Chairman of Stahlinstitut VDEh, summarised the state of the market in his presentation in Washington on 5 October 2008. This 16-page pdf-document contains current charts on Germany’s steel market (Steel Industry facing New Challenges)  and on market supply developments. It does not identify an improvement of market supply conditions. Prices for coking coal, ore and chrome reached record levels. Tin and scrap metal prices fell for the first time at the end of summer 2008.