Steel prices continue to occupy the front of the stage this year.
Metallurgical companies, distributors and customers are reporting delays in steel orders and an increase in prices. A temporary mismatch between supply and demand that we do not know if it will stabilize during the first half of the year.
With the end of activity in 2020, which seems to be yesterday, but almost two years have already elapsed since the beginning of the pandemic, companies have seen their stocks in the face of economic uncertainty. With the beginning of the year 2022, the improvement of the perspectives and the increase of the orders have considerably increased the demand of steel, which is partly compromised by all the economic circumstances that take place in this globalized world.
The drop in stocks of raw materials has direct repercussions on demand, with uncountable and difficult-to-assume price hikes for an even more unstable production, in addition to long and sometimes unguaranteed delivery times.
The shoe industry agrees that the crisis in the raw materials market is unprecedented, as we have accumulated an average increase of 80% compared to the levels of before the pandemic. At JOVER, after more than 50 years of activity, we have never seen anything like it.
We expect that 2022 will be the year of business recovery for the entire sector and global economies. All sectors are directly or indirectly affected by situations such as those seen over the last two years.