Newsletter 59 - December 2010

"DECEMBER STEEL BULLETIN "

Prices

(1st Jan 06 = 100 units)

                        From 1st Nov  (1st Jan) Last 12 months

                                     2010  (2010)    High           Low

Merchant Bar                 143  (125)     186 (05/10) 125 (01/10)

(Rounds, Flats, Angles etc)                      

Heavy sections              154  (127)     173 (06/10) 127 (01/10)

(Beams, Columns etc)                              

Hollow Sections             146  (130)     177 (05/10) 130 (01/10)  

(Box, Tubes etc)                                     

Prices

Merchant bar(angles, flats, rounds etc) prices are rising on the back of scrap price increases and the mills have announced a £20/t increase. Hollow sections are under pressure but anticipate that they will bounce back in January. Heavy sections (beams, columns, channels etc) are suffering from poor demand but we are reliably informed that Tata will be increasing their mill prices by as much as £50/t from 2nd January 2011. We think this is a good time to buy as prices may surge forward in the New Year.

Supply/Demand

Supply is on balance although stock levels of all products are at a very low ebb, therefore, if you have any large enquiries please ask us. Demand is not good but we do not think it can get any worse, despite the cold weather we are currently experiencing.

Tomrods Ltd

At Tomrods we are delighted by the success of our sister company All Steels Trading who have won a top business award 'HSBC Thinking Company Of The Year'. Laurence McDougall (Managing Director) will be travelling to Hong Kong during week commencing 6th December to bring back a further award - we wish him the very best of luck.

Although our move to Thirsk was completed in October, we are working hard putting all the planned improvements in place. May we thank all our customers for their continued support whilst we moved and we look forward to giving you all a quicker and better service.

Cutting and Drilling Line

Our new cutting and drilling line (for beams, columns, channels etc) will be commisioned in early January 2011. We will be in touch to find out if this os of interest to you and we would appreciate your feedback so you can help us plan future shift patterns.

We wish all our customers, suppliers and friends a very Happy Christmas and Prosperous and Peaceful New Year.

Thank you for reading this and if you have any comments about Tomrods Ltd or our website please email the undersigned at johnt@tomrods.co.uk

John Thompson
Managing Director -