Benelux

Some time ago, I came across the famous Bob Dylan album The Times They Are A-Changin’ at a local flea market. Reading the newspapers and looking around, the title has lost none of its power or meaning. 

While somewhat negative sentiment seems to have settled in over recent weeks, it is interesting to see how certain geopolitical decisions or events give birth to new market dynamics. With the tariff situation between the USA and China, for example, the latter is shifting its focus to other markets and we are starting to see an increased interest in the Benelux.

This is against a background where yard activity levels have calmed significantly after the drop in markets. Yards are currently left with now-expensive stocks and, given that it is slow on the incoming side, it is more challenging to buy new units at lower prices to cost average out overall stocks. This slows business activity even more. 

It is not only China that seems to be active over here. Owing to an overall tightness in availability, Benelux yards are receiving strong requests from a number of directions; for example, Polish buyers continue to be hungry for cables while their Italian counterparts have a strong appetite for copper grades. Also worthy of note is that exports are continuing on CuFe and motors, including fridge motors.

In parallel to this, yards are continuing to invest in upgrading their equipment with an eye on sustainability and quality improvement. In addition, a lack of skilled labour is starting to fuel investments in automation. Everywhere we are seeing an increase in the introduction of robots. 

Also noteworthy is the EU’s selection of two Benelux-based projects - involving Solvay and Umicore - in the bid to become more self-reliant in terms of critical resources; some 47 projects have been chosen in all. Umicore has shifted its strategy by emphasising the strengths and importance of its recycling facility at Hoboken in Belgium and by pushing its battery recycling activities more into the background.