German Steel Sales Rise 20.9% in September

German steel distributor sales reached 879,820 tonnes in September 2026, rising 20.9% from August and 2.9% year over year, according to data from the German Steel Distributors Association (BDS) reported by S&P Global.

Germany's steel distribution market rebounded in September following weaker sales in August, with month-on-month gains recorded across all three product categories covered by BDS.

Flat, Long and Other Steel Sales All Increased

Sales of long steel products rose 18.4% from August to approximately 296,170 tonnes.

Flat steel recorded the largest tonnage, with sales increasing 21.5% month over month to about 503,000 tonnes.

Sales of other steel products climbed 27.1% to approximately 80,550 tonnes.

On a year-over-year basis, long product sales increased 7.1% and sales of other steel products rose 9.6%. Flat steel sales were broadly stable, declining 0.3% from September 2025.

Distributor Inventories Fell in September

Total steel inventories held by German distributors declined to approximately 1.87 million tonnes in September, down 2.8% from August, according to BDS data.

Despite the monthly reduction, inventories remained 1.4% above their September 2025 level.

Data note: secondary reporting states that September sales were 5.8% above a 2025 monthly average of approximately 789,370 tonnes. That percentage does not mathematically reconcile with the reported September total of 879,820 tonnes and should be rechecked against the underlying BDS dataset before publication.

German Crude Steel Output Fell 13%

The distributor data came during a month in which German crude steel production fell sharply year over year.

According to Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl, Germany produced 2.627 million tonnes of crude steel in September 2026, down 13.0% from September 2025 but approximately 1.3% higher than August.

Oxygen-route steel production fell 20.2% year over year to 1.697 million tonnes, which the association identified as the main contributor to the overall decline. Electric-arc-furnace production moved in the opposite direction, rising 4.3% to 929,000 tonnes.

The figures therefore show two different developments in September: distributor sales rebounded strongly from the weaker August level, while domestic crude steel production remained substantially below the level recorded a year earlier. The available data do not, by themselves, establish a causal relationship between the two movements.

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• Germany Saw a 1.8% Y/Y Fall in Steel Production in July
• Global Steel Production Fell by 1.2% Y/Y in August

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