Create value in a challenging market

The strategy is based on generating value in every main activity by offering materials and services of a high quality at competitive prices. The steel industry is cyclical with variable steel prices and varying demand. Costs are adapted to the demand situation and the product mix is reviewed. The company’s most important focus is to increase and deepen its cooperation with customers, streamline the supply chain and work on the cost side to achieve a healthy margin throughout the business. The company strives for sustainability to permeate the strategy and its activities.

Fossil-free steel

BE Group’s ambition is to be able to offer customers a complete range of fossil-free steel from several suppliers as it becomes available on the market. The company seeks to contribute knowledge and service to help small and medium-sized enterprises to act consciously at competitive prices.

Customer experience

The company strives to develop long-term relations with customers and to be able to assist with everything from material discussions to delivery options. This imposes considerable demands on the knowledge and experience of the employees and the company has employees with extensive expertise. This is balanced by the new employees who come in with new ideas and experiences.

Steel market 2023

In Europe (EU27), 126.3 million tons of raw steel were produced during the year according to the World Steel Association, which is the global trade association for the steel producers.

This is a decrease by about 7 percent compared with the previous year. The surrounding world was spared major events in 2023 and European steel prices were consequently guided by supply and demand, which resulted in less price volatility than earlier years.

Varying price trend

Long products are largely consumed by the construction sector, which experienced a sharp decline, at the same time that the costs of raw materials and energy fell in the first half of the year. Altogether, this caused spot prices, according to statistics from S&P Platts, to fall in the first half of the year, but they recovered somewhat in late autumn. The total price drop for long products was 18 percent and the corresponding price drop for rebar was 17 percent for the entire year.

Flat products mainly go to the industrial sector and therefore had better demand than long products during the year. A large proportion is sold through distributors and steel service centers that buy only when their inventories are low, which contributes to uneven demand. At the end of 2022, spot prices for flat products rose in Europe, according to S&P Platts, since distributors tried to fill their inventories while producers had limited their capacity. This continued after the end of the year until the end of February. Over the year, price trends were very volatile and the spot price for heavy plates fell by 7 percent in total. The spot price trend for hot-rolled steel was calmer, but also varied over the year and rose by just under 1 percent in total.

A distinctive trend for the 2023 steel year was that various steel products began to be offered commercially with a lower carbon footprint. For example, BE Group introduced bars and profiles in the Chalibria product line from steel producer Beltrame in the product range. This is the beginning of an exciting development.