Day: 14 December 2023

The European Commission has this week concluded its review of the existing hot rolled coil anti-dumping duties on imports from Brazil, Iran and Russia, and confirmed these will remain in place.

The duties were originally imposed in October 2017. These are designed as a fixed duty of between €17.6-96.5/tonne depending on the country and mill of origin. Russia’s Severstal is subject to the lowest level of duty, while MMK has the highest.

Originally, in 2017, duties were also imposed on imports of Ukrainian HRC; the measure was then cancelled following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, Kallanish notes.

“The Commission concluded that there were no compelling reasons of Union interest against the continuation of the existing measures on imports of certain hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation,” the official notice of the European Commission explains.

“Following the imposition of anti-dumping measures against imports of HRC from Brazil, Iran and Russia in 2017, imports from Brazil decreased, while imports from Russia remained overall at similar levels compared to the original investigation. In the case of Iran, imports of HRC into the Union stopped completely in 2020, allowing the Union industry to start recovering from the injurious effects of the dumped imports from the countries concerned,” the notice adds.

Emanuele Norsa Italy

In the ongoing northwest European annual coil contract negotiations for 2024 with carmakers, automotive suppliers and other OEMs, the first signals of resolution have been heard this week.

Apparently, the tension created by the two sides being far off an agreement has now eased, much to the relief of the mills, who were preparing to come to terms with a price decline of at least €100/tonne. That was the tone heard from various sources on the buyers’ end, who said they would ask for a three-digit y-o-y reduction.

Last year, contracts struck early were heard signed at below €800/t, but many deals closed later would have been above that mark, as the talks occurred during a period of surging spot market prices.

Three digits could of course mean more than a €100 decline, with one manager at a large automotive supplier telling Kallanish last week that “we will enter talks with the proposal of minus €150”.

However, market chatter now tells of the first deal struck between a German carmaker and a mill at a reduction of around €50/t y-o-y, and that same manager says he is quite happy with the outcome. “The carmakers see that they ought to let the mills breathe if they want to keep them as suppliers,” he notes.

Mills are pressured by high input costs, power prices, and a critical lack of demand. Adding to that, they have been dismayed by the other negotiations they are partaking in, with union IG Metall demanding wage increases of 8% for steelworkers.

According to the manager, another big carmaker is eager to have its contracts secured in December still, and possibly with the same conditions as the previous outcome. The other carmaker, too, has lowered its request for a reduction from minus €100 to minus €50-60.

“That would set the trend for all smaller players, who follow the example of the big ones,” the manager says. “Once this happens, the avalanche cannot be stopped any more.”

Christian Koehl Germany

Die PWO-Gruppe setzt ihre Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie weiter mit hohem Tempo um. Für die Reduzierung der Treibhausgasemissionen (THG-Emissionen) beim Einkauf von Stahl, dem für unser Geschäft bedeutendsten Rohmaterial, haben wir heute mit der Salzgitter Mannesmann Stahlservice GmbH – einem Tochterunternehmen der Salzgitter AG – eine Partnering-Vereinbarung unterzeichnet, um ab 2026 „Grünstahl“ aus Salzgitter zu beziehen. Damit werden wir unseren Kunden künftig eine umweltfreundliche Alternative zu herkömmlich erzeugtem Stahl anbieten können.

Mit dem Transformationsprogramm „SALCOS® – Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking“ wird der Salzgitter-Konzern seine Stahlherstellung schrittweise auf wasserstoffbasierte Verfahren umstellen. Ziel ist eine nahezu CO2-freie Produktion ab 2033. Dabei soll die klassische Hochofenroute durch eine Produktionsroute mittels Direktreduktion und Elektrolichtbogenöfen ersetzt werden.

Jochen Lischer, CFO, unterstreicht: „Die heutige Vereinbarung stellt einen Meilenstein für die Dekarbonisierung unserer Wertschöpfungskette dar. Bis 2030 wollen wir unsere absoluten THG-Emissionen im Scope 3 gegenüber dem Basisjahr 2019 um 28,0 Prozent reduzieren. Der Bezug von „Grünstahl“ der Salzgitter Mannesmann Stahlservice GmbH mit einem um bis zu 95 Prozent geringeren CO₂-Fußabdruck in der Produktion wird hierzu positiv beitragen.“

Michael van der Vlist, Geschäftsführer der Salzgitter Mannesmann Stahlservice GmbH ergänzt: „Wir freuen uns, die Zusammenarbeit mit der PWO-Gruppe so zukunftsorientiert auszuweiten. Die Transformation hin zu einer klimaneutralen Wirtschaft kann nur in einem Netzwerk starker Partner gelingen, die dafür sorgen, dass der Markt für CO₂-reduzierte Stahlprodukte stetig wächst.“

Source: salzgitter-ssc.de