Voestalpine strengthens international production bases, invests in Brazil
Austria’s voestalpine is banking on local-for-local production in its various countries of activity, executives said during a conference call on Wednesday, when they also revealed several new projects.
They highlighted Brazil, especially, as a market with great potential, which has not been often mentioned in company communication, with voestalpine one of the leading manufacturers of special tubes and sections in the country. Its location in Caxias do Sol is currently being expanded to include a logistics centre with corresponding facilities, Kallanish hear during the conference.
In the niche area of welding technology, voestalpine has invested in expanding its production of welding consumables in India. Voestalpine Böhler Welding has been gradually expanding its local value creation in India in recent years and invested around €3 million ($3.4m) in its Indian locations.
In Egypt, voestalpine Railway Systems is manufacturing turnouts in Cairo, supplying around 260 high-speed turnouts for the construction of the first Egyptian high-speed line – the Green Line.
In the USA, the foundation has been laid for the expansion of production and sales capacities in the storage systems business segment in Louisville, Kentucky. Carola Richter, head of voestalpine’s Metal Forming division, highlighted that storage systems are a particularly successful segment within the group, with further expansion planned.
Regarding the doubling of US steel import tariffs, chief executive Herbert Eibensteiner noted that the 25% duties imposed until now could still be handed down to the customer. At 50%, however, demand from the US will clearly see a setback. The company already expected a loss in the two-million digit euro range under the previous scenario. With 50% imposed, the loss will be in the higher end of that range, he predicted.
Christian Koehl Germany
Marcegaglia boosts digitisation for quality control in Ravenna
Marcegaglia aims to enhance product quality by implementing a smart quality management system at its Ravenna facility in Italy.
Called Eyeron, the solution, developed by French equipment maker Fives, monitors every stage of the production process, records quality incidents, and gathers production data throughout the workshops. It also automatically assesses products in real time, leading to notable enhancements in efficiency and quality management.
“Due to a wide upstream diversity and a multitude of end customer requirements, we were looking for an intelligent solution to ensure the best quality and substantially reduce the rate of downgraded coils. Eyeron will be installed throughout the Ravenna plant to bring our production process and quality management to a higher level,” Marcegaglia Ravenna quality manager Michele Manaresi says in a joint note sent to Kallanish.
The initial stage of the project was launched in 2024, during which a pilot solution was carried out at the facility. It is now moving into the second phase, which involves data collection, rule enforcement, and dashboard customisation for the entire plant, to consolidate process and quality-related information on a single device.
Data collection supports quality rules that evaluate product conformity with end-user needs and offer corrective methods if necessary. Data can be evaluated from any mobile device or computer by all users, regardless of location, as Eyeron was completely tailored for Marcegaglia.
Fives previously supplied SmartLine to Ravenna, an automatic control system for enhanced coil processing, installed on four galvanising lines in 2021.
Marcegaglia is implementing its “MasterModel” innovation project to digitise all re-rolling of hot rolled coil, from pickling to galvanising. MasterModel is a high-level mathematical software system capable of integrating the metallurgical details of HRC, such as chemical and mechanical properties and microstructure, with the target quality of the final product (see Kallanish passim).
Natalia Capra France
UK steel welcomes US reprieve, urges tariff-zeroing deal
UK Steel has welcomed the US decision to keep tariffs on UK-origin steel imports at 25%, but says the US-UK deal agreed in May must be implemented urgently to remove tariffs completely – as well as uncertainty.
US President Donald Trump signed on Tuesday the proclamation that increases the levy on steel and aluminium products from 25% to 50%, effective 4 June (see Kallanish passim). Contrary to UK steelmaker concerns last week, when Trump first announced the tariff doubling, the levy on UK steel remains unchanged to allow for the implementation of the US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal signed on 8 May.
Although the UK exemption is a vote of confidence for UK steelmakers’ ability to continue supplying the US market, it also creates further uncertainty, which is disruptive, says UK Steel.
“Continued 25% tariffs will benefit shipments already on the water that we were concerned would fall under a tax hike. However, uncertainty remains over timings and final tariff rates, and now US customers will be dubious over whether they should even risk making UK orders,” notes the association’s director general, Gareth Stace.
“The US and UK must urgently turn the May deal into reality to remove the tariffs completely. At an already crushing time for our steel industry, with global oversupply and weak demand, we must continue to work together to support sales levels in our second most important export market,” he adds.
On or after 9 July, the US will likely finalise the agreement to replace tariffs on UK steel with tariff-free quotas, or choose to pull tariffs up to 50% for the UK.
The UK must also provide added protection for its steel market, as there is evidence that trade diversion is “switching gears” into the UK after the EU stepped up its trade defences, Stace says. “We must not lose sight of our domestic market while battling to stabilise exports to the US,” he concludes.
Adam Smith Poland
Galati restarts blast furnace, restructuring plan talks continue
Liberty Galati has restarted pig iron production at blast furnace no.5, after an almost year-long stoppage, with liquid steel output to begin by the weekend and then continuous casting and rolling next week, Kallanish notes.
In the first two weeks, average daily production is expected to be 3,800 tonnes of hot metal, equivalent to approximately 4,300 t/day of steel. This will gradually increase to 5,500 t/d of hot metal, equivalent to 6,500 t/d of steel, to reach the break-even point, Galati says.
Parallel to the production restart, negotiations continue with Liberty Galati’s approximately 1,200 creditors for the approval of the steelworks’ restructuring plan, which is expected to be validated by the Galati Court by 5 July.
Galati’s action plan “aims to achieve a positive Ebitda over the next two years, expand the order portfolio in strategic industries such as defence, infrastructure, construction, and shipbuilding, and improve operating costs. The company is also implementing initiatives to preserve the value of Romanian assets, monetise non-core assets such as real estate, and identify new funding sources,” says Remus Borza, president at EuroInsol, the insolvency advisors working with Galati on its restructuring process.
“Steel demand has begun to stabilise, supported by the European Union’s trade measures, strategic support, and the CBAM regime,” Liberty Galati notes. “It is expected that the new EU-imposed quotas limiting imports, as well as the future reconstruction of Ukraine, will positively influence steel demand – including for high-quality products made in Galati. The EU’s focus on the defence industry and other key sectors will further stimulate demand and pricing for steel in the medium to long term.”
The steelmaker signed an agreement with the Romanian government in March to secure a €350 million ($377m) working capital loan from Romania’s Exim Bank to finance raw materials supply. It initially set a deadline of 22 April for the production restart.
Adam Smith Poland
European HRC prices slide in recent deals
Offers from mills in Northern Europe for HRC with July lead times were heard at €620-650 ($707-742) per tonne ex-works or delivered
Italy-origin coil was offered to Germany at €630 per tonne delivered.
Buyers’ estimations of tradable values were heard at €590-620 per tonne ex-works.
Several buyers reported a transaction from one major mill in the region around €600 per tonne delivered in Germany, which nets back to about €585-590 per tonne ex-works, but it was not confirmed by the seller.
Another source said the same deal was done at €595 per tonne delivered.
“Before this year’s end, we will see more price drops. Demand is just not there, US imposes 50% tariffs on steel, CBAM is approaching. [There’s] no light in the end of the tunnel,” a buyer in Germany said.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe was €612.50 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €14.38 per tonne compared with €626.88 per tonne on Tuesday June 3.
The index was down by €16.25 per tonne week on week and by €42.50 per tonne month on month.
In Italy, meanwhile, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €593.13 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €3.54 per tonne from €596.67 per tonne on the previous day.
The Italian index was down by €6.87 per tonne week on week and by €30.00 per tonne month on month.
Offers from domestic mills were heard at €590-600 per tonne ex-works on Wednesday.
Estimates of tradable values were heard at €580-600 per tonne ex-works.
In the secondary market, 4 mm HR sheet was traded at €660-580 per tonne CPT.
Sources reported softer import offers in the week to Wednesday.
Notably, suppliers from Indonesia reduced offers to €490-500 per tonne CFR to Italy, compared with €520 per tonne CFR at the end of May.
Despite attractive prices, no fresh deals for Indonesian coil was heard so far.
“Italian buyers just received tonnages from Indonesia ordered earlier and [are testing] the quality,” a buyer in Southern Europe said.
Lower offers were also heard from India — around €535-540 per tonne CFR to Italy, compared with €550-560 per tonne CFR in end-May.
Turkey-origin coil was offered at an average price of €530-545 per tonne CFR duty paid to Italy.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
Italy heavy steel plate prices widen downward, European import prices rise on changes to quota rules
Meanwhile, imported plate prices in both northern and southern Europe rose during the pricing session, with market sources attributing the increases to adjustments in the region’s steel safeguard measures that were introduced in April.
Italy
Heavy plate prices in Italy were under downward pressure in the week, with limited buying and weak demand weighing on the market.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate, 8-40mm, exw Southern Europe, was €610-630 ($697-720) per tonne on June 4, widening downward by €10 per tonne from €620-630 per tonne on May 28.
Most transactions were heard to be made at the lower end of the range, one buy-side source said.
A producer source told Fastmarkets that prices for booked or offered material depended on individual mills’ order books, with lower prices offered by mills with thinner order books to attract business.
Meanwhile, import offer prices were at higher levels following new EU steel quota caps introduced on April 1, to remain in force until June 30, 2026.
New measures include a reduction in the annual liberalization rate to 0.1% from 1%in the EU’s steel safeguard measures, tightening import controls, as well as new caps per country over the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) volume initially available in each quarter.
The same producer source said that significant import tonnages for South Korean and Indonesian material have been affected by the new measures.
Indonesian, Indian and Brazilian imported material was offered at €610 per tonne CIF in the week.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel plate (8-40mm), import, cfr main port Southern Europe, was €585-610 per tonne on Wednesday, up by €10-25 per tonne from €575-585 per tonne a week earlier.
And Italian import prices for slab feedstock also widened downward due to the greater availability of cheaper Russian slab in the market.
Northern Europe
In Northern Europe, the domestic commodity-grade steel heavy plate market remained stable, but sources said that the market was still facing weak demand and sluggish trade.
“Northern European prices are always higher versus prices in the south, but even [in the North] prices are under [downward] pressure,” a third market participant said.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate, 8-40mm, exw Northern Europe, was €660-700 per tonne on Wednesday, stable week on week.
Imported plate prices in the Northern European market also increased along with Italian imports, with Indonesian offers to Spain reported at €630 per tonne CIF during the week.
Published by: Holly Chant
EUROFER: New EU trade measures needed in face of US tariffs
The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has stated that, with US tariffs now raised to 50 percent, the only way to avoid the further erosion of the European steel market is the swift implementation of the “highly effective trade measure” promised by the European Commission.
Expecting a massive deflection of the 27 million mt of steel previously destined for the US towards the European market due to the doubling of US tariffs on steel, EUROFER noted that, with global overcapacity at record highs and import penetration in the EU up to 30 percent, the EU is being flooded by cheap foreign steel.
Reporting that most of the 3.8 million mt of EU steel exports to the US are now under a de facto import ban, the association stated that, with the 50 percent tariff, even Europe’s highest-quality, most competitive steel products will be priced out.
“We need the Commission’s promised ‘highly effective trade measure’ as a lifeline, and we need it now. If we wait until 2026, when the current EU steel safeguard expires, much of our industry will already be submerged beyond recovery. … A negotiated EU-US solution is paramount to preserve our exports at this critical moment for the European sector. The US and the EU should reopen negotiations, stalled in 2024, to address global overcapacity jointly,” Axel Eggert, director general of EUROFER, said.
US Steel Traders grapple with ‘nightmare’ tariff doubling
US President Donald Trump said during an appearance at US Steel’s Irvin Works outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Friday May 30 that he would double Section 232 tariffs from 25% to 50% on steel and aluminium. The news ruined weekends across the nation.
“It’s a nightmare… It’ll destroy the economy, manufacturing — nothing good about it,” a trader said. “Domestic mills will take advantage of this and raise prices. Everything’s been suspended since Friday… I’ve got cargo coming in [this month] and that’s going to be penalized. [The customer] already said they won’t pay for it.”
A West Coast trader said his market is particularly vulnerable to off-the-cuff tariff announcements due to the local reliance on imported steel — which may not be a negative for the Trump administration.
“Importers are scrambling right now, and customers who bought import are also scrambling to ensure they have steel in the next 30-60 days,” he said, adding that it is “probably icing on the cake for the Trump administration — stick it to the states that did not vote for him.”
“Materials that have rolled and have shipped or are at the docks about to ship will have to be renegotiated. What means in terms of who shoulders the burder of the additional 25% is yet to be determined,” he said. “So that being said, I fully anticipate domestic mills will raise prices. Not sure if we’ll see announcements, as the optics might look bad. If you call today, you’ll find mills saying they don’t have availability, which is a crock. They are just waiting to see what they can get away with.”
A distributor told Fastmarkets that domestic mills have essentially stopped quoting “because mills haven’t figured out what they’re going to do yet.”
“Mills have paused their quoting,” he said. “We’ve been talking to traders, and they’re definitely concerned depending on how these things shake out. They’ve got steel on the water. They may need to absorb the tariffs or get the mill to do some absorption.”
Yet another trader called the situation “truly interesting times.”
“A 50% mark-up is impossible to catch in the market — to do any business on imports with customers,” he said. “Domestic mills haven’t changed their prices yet, but with 50%, it’ll always be difficult. Maybe not impossible, but difficult for buyers to make economic sense of importing.”
EUROMETAL urges action against unregulated steel derivatives imports to EU
European steel distribution association EUROMETAL called for action June 3 to address an influx of unregulated steel derivatives entering the EU market, and asked stakeholders to submit data demonstrating the impact on industry.
Ready-made steel product imports lack adequate regulatory oversight and pose a significant threat to European manufacturing, according to the association.
“These unchecked imports are placing European manufacturing at risk and threatening the entire steel value chain, from production and processing to distribution and end-use. This situation calls for swift, collective action,” EUROMETAL President Alexander Julius said.
EUROMETAL had already voiced concerns about the increase in steel derivatives imports to the European Commission in April. In response, the commission requested concrete evidence, including specific tariff codes and data that demonstrate the scale of this influx.
EUROMETAL said it is gathering and compiling data on these imports, collaborating closely with Eurofer and other interested associations. The industry bodies aim to present a united front to the commission and demonstrate the widespread impact on the industry.
Eurometal has provided a template for stakeholders to provide relevant information regarding steel derivative imports, with all submissions due by June 15.
“This is a crucial opportunity to show the European Commission that this issue is widespread, data-driven and industry-backed,” Julius said.
