Day: 7 March 2026

The Metals division of Andritz is working on a new furnace concept for manufacturing electrical steel, Kallanish hears from the Austria-based plantbuilder.

The focus is on a fully modular design that ensures quick installation, the company explains. The electrical steel produced in these furnaces offers improved efficiency and can be directly integrated into processing lines already supplied by Andritz, it notes.

Following the market introduction of the Sundwig MonoBlock, a 20-roll mill for the production of cold-rolled strip, Andritz now has the complete portfolio of multi-roll mills for production of electrical steel in foil thickness.

The company says it aims to establish itself as a complete solutions provider for the production of non-grain-oriented electrical steel.

To this purpose, in December, Andritz acquired a 51% stake in China-based Baoding Sanzheng Electrical Equipment, a supplier of solutions for the induction heating field located in Hebei Province, the country’s largest steel-producing province.

The integration of Sanzheng gives Andritz a complete portfolio of induction heating technologies, complementing the capability to deliver full-line solutions for electrical steel processing, galvanizing, annealing, and forging.

Another acquisition in the Metals division last year was Salico Group, headquartered in Italy and Spain, which specialises in advanced finishing equipment for metal flat strip processing.

In 2025, the Metals division of Andritz recorded order intake of €1.48 billion ($1.71 billion), down 13% versus 2024. Customer demand is increasingly shifted toward smaller-scale projects, modernisations and non-automotive applications, such as defence, it says.

The larger Andritz group, including Hydropower, Pulp & Paper, and Energy & Environment, achieved an order intake of €8.9 billion, marking an increase of 7.6% from the previous year.

The UK steel sector will remain uncompetitive without better government policy to protect it ahead of changes to safeguard quotas in other regions, panellists said at the recent Make UK conference in London, attended by Kallanish.

Peter Quinn, director of sustainability and environment, Tata Steel UK, told attendees the UK needs to be prepared for the “cliff edge” coming on 1 July when the EU’s new quota and tariff regime comes in. “We want to at least preserve what we’ve got now,” he noted.

Gareth Stace, director general, UK Steel, also warned of damage to the industry, “unless this government, because it’s now or never, does something really important and significant to change the fortunes of our sector”. Without action, it “will be a very, very different sector in the next few years”.

He also noted that concerns over energy and carbon costs, as well as procurement still need tackling, and if the government does not address those, “we are still dead in the water”. However, the new EU tariff-rate quota regime “blows everything else out of the water”.

If the UK government fails to respond and “give us a really good, robust and strong UK steel quota and safeguards from 1 July and address the uncompetitive business landscape, then we will not be the sector that even you know at the moment,” he warned.

Carles Rovira, chief executive at 7 Steel, argued “there is no reason UK steel production cannot be competitive”, noting the country will have the latest technology, using electric arc furnaces, skills and scrap.

“What we’re asking [from] government is to give us the same means other steel producers have to compete,” he asserted. He highlighted scrap barriers for 48 countries, making the material cheaper domestically. Other countries which have subsidies for energy should not be seen as “competitive”, he argued.

Meanwhile, Alasdair McDiarmid, assistant general secretary, Community Union, said: “We need to stop lurching from crisis to crisis. We’re in a hole [and] it seems like we’ve been in a hole for a very long time; we need to fix this once and for all.”

He expressed frustration to still be calling for the same support as when the Steel Council was first formed in 2015 after the SSI steelworks collapsed. “We defined what the industry needed at that time; there were five key priorities, action on energy prices, procurement, trade defence, reform of business rates and support for decarbonisation investment, and we’re now in 2026, 11 years on and these are still the priorities,” he lamented.

“We know what the problems are, we know what the solutions are, it’s very, very frustrating,” he added.

Meanwhile, Quinn described the ETS schemes in the UK and EU as “blunt instruments” that have not been effective in creating conditions to decarbonise “a very capital intensive business”.

“It was punitive, it was a cost for not decarbonising, but it didn’t help you to decarbonise, it just punished you for not doing it and the two things are different,” added Quinn.

Stace expressed concerns over the UK’s CBAM policy. “Unfortunately, within Treasury, CBAM is developing … but it’s going to achieve exactly the opposite of what it should,” he warned.

He highlighted UK Steel calculations show Chinese steel will pay less in CBAM costs than steel produced in the UK. “It should have been the other way round and it’s astonishing that we’ve got less than a year to go before it comes into effect on the 1st of January next year and yet Treasury is working through a policy that’s going to damage us even further,” he concluded.

Mandating low-emission steel use in the EU’s construction and automotive sectors would allow steel to gain a green premium that will be partially passed on to the price of final products. This predictability of future demand for low-emission material could absorb part of transition investment costs and push further decarbonisation investment decisions, the European Commission notes.

Earlier this week, the Commission published its Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) legislative proposal, including a stipulation that 25% of steel volume procured for public projects launched from 2029 must be low-emission.

In its IAA impact assessment, the Commission points out there are at least 29 announced steel decarbonisation projects, with a combined potential capacity of additional 41 million tonnes/year of low-emission steel by 2030, that have not yet reached the final investment stage.

The proposed lead market measures could unlock up to €15.5 billion ($18 billion) in investments covering approximately 15% of the sector’s €100 billion total investment need by 2050, it adds in the document monitored by Kallanish.

“The measure will create a more stable and predictable domestic market for European producers, allowing them to secure long-term contracts for low-carbon materials in public works and supported sectors. This internal market stimulus is expected to offset any small decline in export volumes, reinforcing industrial utilisation and accelerating investment recovery,” the document notes.

“In addition, by slightly increasing domestic output and reducing exposure to highly concentrated foreign supply chains in the supported segments, the measure provides a modest economic-security gain, lowering vulnerability to sudden price shifts, coercive practices or export restrictions from dominant suppliers,” it adds.

In terms of how the measure impacts downstream sector competitiveness, “given the significant share of vehicle registrations supported by public support schemes, it is reasonable to expect that introducing low-carbon steel and aluminium requirements as a condition for accessing such support would strongly incentivise vehicle manufacturers to adopt low-carbon materials across a significant part (if not the entirety) of their product portfolio, particularly for models intended for the EU market,” the document notes.

“At the same time, there is a risk of losing competitiveness on third countries markets, especially if no similar low-carbon policies apply,” it adds. “Consequently, the absence of similar requirements in other world regions may put – in the short term – EU vehicle manufacturers in a condition of relative cost disadvantage and possible relocation of EU industry.”

“Moreover, the risk of capacity constraints in the low-carbon steel and aluminium supply-chain should not be neglected: the moderate low-carbon ambition tabled under this measure is therefore based on the existing pipeline of projects, to prevent that risk,” it says.

As low-carbon production scales up, premiums are projected to decline, reducing the competitiveness gap. In the medium term, the expansion of EU low-carbon capacity and declining green premiums are expected to strengthen the overall competitiveness of the European industrial base, enabling it to compete globally on both cost and sustainability performance.

Nevertheless, “the limited willingness to pay for the green premium depends on a range of policy measures to bolster the business case for decarbonisation investments, optimising net benefits,” the Commission notes. “Importantly, the lion’s share of demand generated by lead markets measures will continue to originate from private sector uptake and procurement.”

Corinth Pipeworks, which is owned by Cenergy Holdings, has bought Liberty Pipes Hartlepool, Kallanish learns from the companies.

Liberty launched an accelerated sales process for the pipe facility in February, selling the business to Corinth for £10 million ($13.4m).

The Asset Sale Agreement (ASA) was signed on 4 March between Corinth Pipeworks UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Corinth Pipeworks (CPW), and the joint administrators of Begbies Traynor, appointed by the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales in London.

Corinth says the strategic acquisition marks an important milestone in the long-term growth plan of the pipework’s business by increasing its capacity and strengthening its position as a key supplier to the global energy sector.

The facility produces submerged arc welded (SAW) line pipe and has a capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year, providing pipe for the carbon capture sector, hydrogen infrastructure, LNG and oil and gas projects across the UK, EU, Americas, the Middle East and Asia.

Alexis Alexiou, chief executive of Cenergy Holdings, says: “With new LSAW pipe production capabilities – which are valued for their mechanical strength, high quality and suitability for critical high pressure uses – we’re expanding our potential. By merging our global expertise with a top tier mill and skilled workforce we can provide tailored solutions to clients worldwide.”

Corinth also says the facility is a significant asset for the UK and aligned with government priorities in infrastructure renewal and decarbonisation, through the use of hydrogen and carbon capture & storage. Trends in reshoring and national supply chain resilience further enhance its growth potential.

Ilias Bekiros, general manager of Corinth Pipeworks, adds: “Hartlepool LSAW facility’s strategic acquisition intends to double CPW’s LSAW capacity, enabling the company to undertake major projects worldwide. The move further strengthens CPW’s position as a leading manufacturer of pipes for demanding deep offshore applications, supported by an exceptional track record in the industry.”