Quarterly Report – April 2020

COVID-19 has had a growing impact on the Middle East and on the wider global economy.  The spread of the virus has hit all industries in many different ways. While the headlines surround customer uncertainty and the visible disruption of production as well as of supply chains, organizations face great risks and challenges regarding their people and crisis management. Even once COVID-19 has been brought under control, companies will still face difficulties in returning to normal.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and many other countries in the Middle East have imposed lockdowns in a bid to slow the spread of the Coronavirus for the protection of human health. This move has affected many stainless steel manufacturers in terms of consumption and production revenues. Stainless steel production growth will slow this year as a result of the current situation, and trading too given that many companies are unable to procure scrap at present because of the lockdown effect.

Overall sentiment in the Middle East is depressed because of COVID-19 and the oil price crash to historic below-zero levels; the latter will affect infrastructure and real-estate development - the main source of scrap supply.

Many researchers had forecasted that the nickel price would reach US$ 16,000 per tonne in the first quarter of 2020 whereas in reality the average was around US$ 12,700.