ATRADIUS INDUSTRY OVERVIEW Headlines UK Steel Industry in Meltdown - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ATRADIUS – INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

Headlines “ UK Steel Industry in Meltdown” Tata Steel Confirms 1,200 job losses “British Steel in Crisis” “UK St Steel Se Sector Imploding” ” ■ Steel production in the UK has been in decline for several years. This is the 3 rd consecutive year of challenges. ■ Steel prices have been depressed largely as a result of low commodity prices and in particular Iron Ore. Improving signs currently. ■ The driver behind this is the continued slowdown in the Chinese economy. ■ To compound this, Australia continue to extract iron ore in high volumes causing world supply to outstrip demand, driving prices down. ■ Against this backdrop, the UK market was confronted by the on-going difficulties of the construction sector, a principal consumer of steel.

The facts behind the headlines ■ Atradius’ UK Steel exposure is primarily on the steel stockholders. Typically these are long established and profitable businesses. ■ Stockholders supplies are mainly from the European mills, with purchasers benefitting from favourable exchange rates. ■ Volumes from primary consumers (construction, automotive) are increasing as they gear up for growth. The British Constructional Steelwork Association forecast 5.4% rise in demand for constructional steel. ■ Largest UK constructional steel contractor Severfield PLC state “order books are robust and pipelines of future projects look promising”. ■ There is some optimism that the sectors performance will improve on the back of increasing volumes as the wider economy shows strong signs of recovery and output for infrastructure grows (e.g. HS2).

Financing the Industry ■ Are Invoice Discounting Lines a concern? ■ New entrants into the UK Market have increased competition ■ Where is the main asset in your business? ■ Funding Working capital via working capital ■ Financing that grows with you ■ ID Lines are seen as Vanilla products ■ Often Credit Insured ■ Control over the debtor book is key – this is where concerns can be raised ■ Level of audit by lender ■ ID Lines are acceptable

Remainder of 2016 ■ An element of volatility will remain in the market place ■ There is an acceptance that we have commodity limits ■ Automotive sectors continue to show an upward trajectory ■ Construction – will always be problematic – but steady at the moment ■ EU referendum is creating an uncertain outlook ■ Visit programme shall continue ■ Credit limits adjusted/maintained to allow sufficient headroom for price volatility ■ Dialogue assists risk analysis – balance sheet underwriting not sufficient ■ Price increases are they long term?