Southeast Europe’s July steel output falls on-year
Southeast Europe (SEE) crude steel output amounted to 224,357 tonnes in July, which is flat on-month, but less compared to 236,441t in July 2024, according to worldsteel data.
In the first seven months of the year, regional production was 1.66 million tonnes compared to 1.76mt in January-July 2024, Kallanish notes.
Serbia was again the largest steel producer among the seven countries of SEE in May, which also include Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, North Macedonia and Moldova.
However, worldsteel did not provide data for June steel production in Bosnia or Moldova.
Serbia’s production of crude steel was up 1.6% on-year at 816,600t in January-July.
Second-largest producer in the region Slovenia saw production in the seven months almost flat on-year at 380,437t. Special steelmaker Slovenian Steel Group (SIJ) reported revenue in 2024 at €1 billion ($1.13 billion), unchanged versus the previous year, and expects the steel market will recover this year.
Third-largest steel producer Bulgaria saw its crude steel output in January-June flat on-year at 300,500t.
North Macedonia produced 161,947t, down 16.4% on-year.
Croatia did not produce steel in January-July.
Bulgaria’s government granted in June a derogation from EU sanctions on Russia to the supply of iron and steel for Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant (see Kallanish passim). A large part of the nuclear equipment is Russian and cannot be replaced by imports from elsewhere.
In June, ArcelorMittal signed a sale and purchase agreement to sell its operations in Bosnia. ArcelorMittal Zenica, an integrated steel plant, and ArcelorMittal Prijedor, an iron ore mining business which supplies the Zenica plant, will be sold to Bosnian real estate company Pavgord Group.
Zenica is the largest producer of long products in the Balkans with a capacity of 700,000 tonnes/year. The basic product range includes rebar in bars and coils, wire rod, mesh, and lattice girders.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
Marcegaglia awards Danieli contract for new Fos-sur-Mer mill
Marcegaglia is starting the engineering phase of its new flat steel production facility in Fos-sur-Mer, Southern France, a source close to the company confirms to Kallanish. The new flat mini-mill known as the “mistral project” is scheduled to begin production in 2028.
Italian equipment maker Danieli has been entrusted with the mini-mill supply, which will include full production facilities for scrap preparation, electric steelmaking, slab casting, and hot-strip rolling. The new mini-mill will produce up to 2.1 million tonnes annually of stainless and carbon hot rolled coil. It will supply Marcegaglia’s cold-rolling complex in Ravenna, meeting about 30% of the company’s total HRC requirements.
“The new electric steel meltshop will feature a Danieli Fastarc Zerobucket furnace equipped with ECS continuous scrap charging and Tornado preheating system, and Q-Melt adaptive process control with auto-pilot,” Danieli explains in a note. “Liquid steel will be processed into quality grades by twin-ladle refining stations and twin-tank vacuum degassers, ensuring high energy efficiency and reduced carbon and NOx emissions.”
The mill design will provide Marcegaglia with flexible production capacity by integrating a Steckel mill and a hot-strip mill into a single configuration. The layout consists of a roughing stand and a five-stand finishing mill. The first stand will operate in Steckel mode when required. This configuration will enable stainless steel slab from Marcegaglia’s Sheffield plant to be rolled in Steckel mode. Carbon steel slab from the caster will be processed in continuous mode through the five-stand finishing mill.
The design includes water and fume treatment systems to guarantee full compliance with environmental standards.
Marcegaglia has provisionally secured a long-term supply of low-carbon nuclear energy to power the facility in Fos. In June, the Italian steel group signed a letter of intent with French utility EDF for a ten-year supply contract that will cover 50% of the energy requirements for the future site.
Marcegaglia plans to invest almost €800 million ($937m) in the former Ascometal site, acquired in 2024. Since last year’s acquisition, Ascometal Fos-sur-Mer has been renamed Marcegaglia Fos-sur-Mer. It will produce HRC and retain its EAF. Jacques-Yves Floch, a former manager at ArcelorMittal Dunkirk, has been appointed director of the plant. The site will be transformed with a focus on sustainability and energy efficiency, producing steel from scrap and low-emission direct reduced iron.
Groundbreaking following engineering studies is scheduled at the beginning of next year (see Kallanish passim).
Natalia Capra France
New German rebar size extras show differing approaches
The recent German and Austrian rebar pricing size extras revamp includes some noteworthy adjustments, such as the reduction in some size extras charges.
In the new lists of two mills, the size extra for straight rebar in the standard 12mm diameter was increased by €15 to €280/tonne ($327). For coiled rebar, however, it has been decreased by €10, at least at Badische Stahlwerke, versus the previous list from 2015. Straight rebar and coil extras are now both at €280.
“That’s right, straight rebar has been brought up, coil brought down,” one big buyer confirms to Kallanish. He also points out the relatively bigger increase for thin-gauge straight bar: size extras for 8mm increased by €40 to €325, whereas coil in the same size remained at €300.
In the case of Badische, the size extra of €280 for coil in 12mm is now on par with other mills; for the last ten years, it used to be €10 higher, at €290. Until now, “Badische charged more using the argument of higher quality,” the buyer says, adding that “they do in fact have a point with that”.
Another manager shares this impression. With the new pricing in favour of coil, he believes that Badische wants to convince buyers that prefer straight bar to instead purchase de-coiled bar. From a wound coil, virtually all bar lengths cat be cut.
According to the manager, the process of re-straightening is more economic than keeping many bar sizes available in store: “You can easily save more space and inventory, from more than 2,000 tonnes to some 1,000t, which also saves you hundreds of thousands in tied-up capital.”
Other mills are not as prominent in working with coiled bar because “you need the infrastructure, a good straightener that avoids flaws in the process”, he concludes.
Christian Koehl Germany
Romanian longs prices stable, import negotiations with Turkey continue
Considering the still slow demand and the continuing impact of the holiday period, Romanian long steel traders and the sole domestic rebar producer have decided to keep offers unchanged from last week. Although demand remains subdued, market participants report some gradual improvement, with expectations of a stronger recovery in the coming days. As a result, some rebar traders have attempted to test higher levels, though, according to reports, these efforts have not generated any significant interest.
In the domestic market, ex-works offers from the sole rebar producer have remained firm at €585-590/mt ex-works, while retail prices across Romania are stable at €580-595/mt ex-warehouse. However, as noted above, some traders attempted to lift offers to €600-605/mt ex-warehouse, but with limited success.
Similar stability has also been observed in the wire rod market. Despite sluggish demand, offers have remained unchanged at €575-585/mt ex-warehouse, the same as in the previous week.
Meanwhile, in the import market, although no fresh deals have been reported, Romanian buyers remain interested in purchasing and are engaged in negotiations, particularly with Turkish mills. These negotiations are expected to conclude with some deals in the coming weeks. Current offers from Turkish mills are quoted at $530-545/mt FOB, which, at an exchange rate of €1 = $1.17, correspond to €470-485/mt CFR for delivery to Romania, down from €475-490/mt CFR in the previous week. Non-EU supplier Egypt has decided to keep stable offers for October shipments, with rebar priced at €485-490/mt CFR and wire rod at €495-500/mt CFR. Meanwhile, EU suppliers such as Bulgaria have slightly decreased offers to €590-600/mt CPT, down from €595-605/mt CPT, for September-October shipments. Additionally, Moldova has continued to offer rebar at €590-600/mt CPT, unchanged from last week.
EU HRC market remains weak, mills eye September pickup
The European HRC market has remained subdued this week amid the summer break, with only a modest pickup in activity seen in the north, while in the southern region, including Italy and Spain, most participants are expected to return in September. At the same time, indicative domestic prices have edged up by €5-10/mt compared with last week’s estimates. Still, despite this slight improvement, August offers above €600/mt ex-works are widely viewed as unworkable in the current market environment.
More specifically, local HRC prices from mills in northern Europe, mainly for October delivery, have been estimated at €580-590/mt ex-works, compared to €580/mt ex-works last week. Besides, according to sources, some mills are reported to be targeting €600-630/mt ex-works for new orders. However, the tradable price level has been estimated at €560-570/mt ex-works level so far, up by €10/mt week on week.
Meanwhile, in Italy, while mills have been aiming to increase their prices for October delivery HRC to €570-580/mt ex-works, some sellers are still ready to sell at around €550-560/mt ex-works, while customers have continued to aim for €530/mt ex-works, the same as last week.
“The price rise announcements from ArcelorMittal and other producers at the end of July prompted a short-lived improvement in sentiment, leading buyers to secure HRC for autumn. Since then, however, all offers above €600/mt ex-works in August have struggled to find acceptance,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
In the meantime, trade activity in the import segment has remained close to zero, with offers estimated at €470-530/mt CFR, depending on the supplier, where the lower end the of range corresponds to indicative offers for ex-Indonesia HRC, while other foreign suppliers’ offer prices have mainly been estimated at €515-530/mt CFR levels.
In particular, offers for ex-Turkey HRC have been heard at €520-530/mt CFR, including duty, mainly the same as last week. Besides, offers for ex-Algeria HRC have been voiced at €515-520/mt CFR, versus €515/mt CFR last week. Furthermore, offers from Indian suppliers have remained at €515/mt CFR.
Spain’s Eco Steel Solutions closes operations
Spanish Eco Steel Solutions (ESS), a subsidiary of coil processing company Network Steel, has halted operations, Kallanish notes. The company informed workers’ representatives of its intention to file for redundancies.
The mandatory 15-day consultation period will begin next week. ESS operates a pickling steel line in Aranda de Duero.
“The cessation of activity is motivated by the global crisis affecting the steel sector, which in recent months has resulted in sharp falls in prices, low demand and high energy and operating costs, further exacerbated by ongoing international conflicts,” ESS states. “The current steel market situation makes it impossible to make a profit from an environmentally friendly product such as that produced by ESS, with the result being economic losses,” the company explains.
ESS has informed workers’ unions of the planned closure, as an effective solution to the situation facing the company.
Todor Kirkov Bulgaria
Austria ramps up crude steel production in July
Austria increased crude steel production in July, bucking the overall EU downtrend, according to worldsteel data.
Output amounted to 658,067 tonnes, up 7.5% on-month and 2.3% more year-on-year, Kallanish notes.
In the first seven months of the year, the country produced 4.31 million tonnes of steel, compared to 4.47mt in the same period last year.
Austria remained in 23rd place in the ranking of top global steel producers, the data show.
Overall EU output in June was down 7% on-year at 10.16mt. January-July production was 75.6mt compared to 78.6mt in the same period last year.
Austrian steelmaker voestalpine recently expressed optimism over economic stimulus in the form of the infrastructure spending programme announced by the German government (see Kallanish passim).
The steelmaker said earlier it will supply steel to Chinese electric vehicle producer BYD for its new car factory in Hungary. The company was chosen by BYD because of its geographical proximity to the Hungary plant, and the high quality and excellent reputation of Austrian steel, the Chinese company noted.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
Blastr adds Ecolab for water treatment, management
Blastr Green Steel has secured a new strategic investor in its latest round of financing, aiming to collaborate on best-in-class water systems at its projected plant in Inkoo, Finland.
In addition to investing in the project, new partner Ecolab has commenced the design of, and intends to subsequently build and operate the water management system at the plant, Blastr tells Kallanish.
According to Blastr, Ecolab is a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, operating in more than 170 countries. Its Nalco Water business provides sustainable water solutions to steel companies and other customers to reduce water usage, maximise production process water reuse and wastewater recycling, and minimise treated effluent discharged.
The parties will work together to minimise seawater intake, seawater discharge, and heat load to the sea, with potential reductions estimated at up to 85-90%. Further advances will be explored through innovative stormwater integration and the use of municipality wastewater, Blastr notes.
The company adds it will shortly launch its Series A investment round through its recently announced financial advisor, Evercore.
“Strategic collaborations, such as this most recent one with Ecolab, further enhance Blastr’s financial case as we build momentum in our funding,” says Blastr chief financial officer David Morant.
Christian Koehl Germany
Steel HRC prices in Europe rise gradually despite lack of demand
Local prices for steel hot-rolled coil in Europe increased on Thursday August 28 despite muted trading and a general lack of support from the demand side.
In Northern Europe, both deals and estimates of workable prices for material scheduled for delivery in October were heard at higher levels than on August 27, within the range of €580-590 ($677-689) per tonne ex-works versus €570-580 per tonne ex-works.
The remaining volumes of material scheduled for shipment in September were, however, still traded within the range of €560-580 per tonne ex-works, according to a seller source.
Several seller sources said that new formal targets were €600-610 per tonne delivered, but such prices faced “lots of pushback from customers.”
Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was €579.38 ($676.24) per tonne on Thursday, up by €6.88 per tonne from €572.50 per tonne the previous day.
The Northern European index was up by €5.63 per tonne week on week and up by €20.38 month on month.
The Italian market was still comparatively quieter because participants have not yet fully returned to business after their summer break.
Some small deals were heard done within the range of €540-550 per tonne ex-works, while target offers from integrated mills and re-rollers in Italy for October-delivery coil were heard at €570-580 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Italy, was €541.67 per tonne on August 28, up from €540.00 per tonne on August 27.
The Italian index was up by €0.84 per tonne week on week and by €15.42 per tonne month on month.
European green steel premiums hold steady as demand stays weak; Nordic buyers lead uptake
Premiums for green flat steel were holding stable across Europe, trending below official offers amid weak demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday August 28.
Buying interest for green steel remained niche and regionalized across Europe, sources said.
“Customers are focused on broader problems, such as low steel demand, US tariffs and regulatory changes impacting import flows into Europe [new safeguards and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism],” one major distributor said.
Nordic countries remained leaders in green steel purchases, with one supplier pointing out that they were selling “up to 90%” of their green steel products to Nordics.
Another supplier said that they were selling small tonnages of green steel quite regularly to the Nordic countries as well.
“Buyers in the Nordic countries are generally more willing to purchase green steel. They know they can pass the additional cost on to the end customer, as many public projects in this region now require the use of green steel,” a mill source said.
Fastmarkets’ methodology defines European green flat steel as “steel produced with Scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions at a maximum of 0.8 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel.”
Premiums for such steel were set at minimum price of €200 ($233) per tonne among European mills.
Buyers estimated achievable prices much lower, at €100-130 per tonne, adding that mills were willing to grant discounts for volumes above 2,000 tonnes.
Suppliers estimated achievable prices higher, at €150-170 per tonne.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ assessment of the green steel domestic, flat-rolled, differential to HRC index, exw Northern Europe was €120-170 per tonne on Thursday, unchanged week on week.
Fastmarkets’ assessment of the flat steel reduced carbon emissions differential, exw Northern Europe was also unchanged week on week at €40-60 per tonne on Thursday.
For steel produced in blast furnaces with reduced carbon emissions of 1.4-1.8 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel, offers for premiums were indicated at €60-70 per tonne during the assessment week.
Buyers’ estimates of tradable prices were around €20-50 per tonne, with most of the estimations coming in the range of €40-50 per tonne.