Newsletter 14 - April 2007

"Keeping you Informed"

Prices

(1st Jan 06 = 100 units)

                            From 5th April '07      Remarks:

Merchant Bar                              126    As predicted prices have

(Rounds, Flats, Angles etc)                  been increased by £20/t

                                                              from 1st April - more

                                                              increases will follow. So

                                                              far this year prices have

                                                              gone up by £54/t.

Heavy sections                          152     Further increases of

(Beams, Columns etc)                           £30-45/t have been                                                               announced from 1st April

                                                              - no further increases

                                                              have been discussed but

                                                             June could see another

                                                             upward price move.

Hollow Sections                         112    Prices on the international

(Box, Tubes etc)                                  market are moving up                                                              quickly. May will see at

                                                             least a £20/t increase and

                                                             this will be followed by

                                                             further increases which .                                                              could be as large as £50/t.

Supply

Merchant Bar mills are still very busy and we expect shortages on some sizes over the coming months.

Heavy Section mills are still busy but we do not foresee any major problems.

Hollow Section supply are still in balance.

Demand
Again our customers seem to have very healthy order books but are experiencing problems getting the final go-aheads/details. At present demand is quiet but we are confident this will improve.

Stock Levels

Our stock levels are generally good with combined stocks of 10,090 tonnes at the start of March. We do have some problem sizes but if our mill suppliers perform as promised we will not have any disruption to deliveries.

Tomrods Limited / All Steels Trading Limited

Both companies had record months with daily deliveries the highest on record. This we put down to everything coming together at the right time rather than reflecting large order intake figures. We thank all our staff who have worked hard to process this tonnage.

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