Day: 24 March 2026

Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) plans to start green hydrogen production in August-September this year through a demonstration plant, Kallanish learns.

The so-called Selene project is being developed by CSN Inova, the steelmaker’s innovation branch. Once operational, it will produce up to 709 tonnes/year of hydrogen, following an investment of BRL 120 million ($22.9m).

According to Vinicius Sant’Ana, CSN Paraná plant general manager, the launch marks an important step towards the future of the industry and renewable fuels.

“This strategic initiative reinforces our commitment to decarbonisation, driving sustainable solutions for both industry and mobility,” he adds.

While production is set to supply vehicles including trucks, fork-lift and buses in and around the mill, the steelmaker has yet to confirm whether it plans to use hydrogen in its steelmaking process. CSN Paraná is a lamination and coating unit situated in Araucária, with capacity to produce 130,000t/y of pre-painted steel, 230,000t/y of galvanized steel and 150,000t/y of hot-rolled stripped coils.

“The future of the industry is built when innovation, scale and market begin to move together,” comments Weber Reis, CSN commercial general manager. “The energy transition requires technology, but it also demands coordination, a business model and implementation capacity.”

According to the company’s website, the CSN group, which includes mining, cement, energy and logistics units, has mapped more than 100 projects and technologies under viability studies. Yet, details on decarbonising targets and strategies have yet to be disclosed.

Brasília has recently launched a sectoral plan for the decarbonisation of industry, seeking to increase renewable energy consumption, amongst other things, to above 65% over the next ten years. Some of the priorities relate to promoting energy efficiency, electrification of processes, adoption of scrap and charcoal as steelmaking inputs instead of coke or coking coal, plus the use of carbon capture and storage technology and hydrogen.

Kallanish has contacted CSN for further information.

Czech crude steel production reached 2.43 million tonnes in 2025, flat on-year, remaining at its lowest level in history, while consumption remained at 5.5mt, the lowest-ever figure except for the 2009 financial crisis year, says the Czech and Slovak steel association, Steel Union.

The crude steel output fall has been largely due to the deterioration and eventual closing of crude steelmaking at Nova Hut, formerly Liberty Ostrava, Kallanish notes.

Production of finished steel actually increased in 2025, by 14% and 61% respectively for long and flat products to 2.07 million tonnes and 805,000t. However, this was down to the restart of operations at Nova Hut after the new owner was installed last year. Pipe production rose 35% to 314,000t.

“We are facing one of the largest and longest crises caused by external factors that fundamentally disrupt economic stability on a European scale and weaken the competitiveness of the European Union,” says Steel Union supervisory board member and Trinecke Zelezarny chief executive Roman Heide.

EU mills are under threat from low-priced imports, high energy prices, and elevated and unstable emission allowance prices, he notes. The Emissions Trading System is “unpredictable and subject to market speculation that we have no control over. The costs of European producers are therefore constantly rising and their competitiveness is continuing to deteriorate,” he adds.

The development ignores the economic reality and the actual functioning of the market “in favour of ideologically motivated approaches”, Heide says.

Czech steel imports rose by 900,000t last year to 7.5mt, with exports growing at a slower pace to 3.4mt.

Deutsche Bahn could be Europe’s biggest customer for rails made of reduced emissions steel, but instead, lags far behind its neighbours in creating such a strategy for its railway services.

At Handelsblatt’s Zukunft Stahl conference in Essen, attended by Kallanish, Nadine Artelt, sales director at Saarstahl and ceo of Saarstahl Rail addressed the failure of Germany’s national railways to become a lead market for green steel.

Although Saarstahl is a German company, its business with reduced carbon emission steel is far bigger in the neighbouring countries than on its home turf. Last year, it signed a supply contract with the UK’s Network Rail for a minimum of 78,000 tonnes, and another with France’s SNCF of up to 170,00t/year over six years, plus others.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bahn contracted a trial volume of 1,000t in November. “We won that tender because there was no one else who would go for a mere 1,000 tonnes,” Artelt quipped.

Max-Christian Lange of DB’s division for sustainability and environment, stated that he “would like very much to contract much bigger volumes”, but highlighted multiple hurdles in the decision process caused by the company’s network of subsidiaries.

DB’s decisions are also slowed by the responsibilities of various political bodies of its main owner, the German state. One of the unsolved questions, for example, is which public coffer to tap to pay the green premium that comes with such products.

Artelt also queried if the process of approval was getting “lost in bureaucracy”. She mentioned the billions granted by the government so far to support green steel technology, and pointed at the paradox that the government does not create a customer market for that steel where it could. She sees the annual rail demand of DB at 250,000t.

“As a German, I would value very much that Germany catches up in this regard,” Artelt said.

UK steel traders fear business closures and job losses as a result of the planned 60% reduction in tariff-rate quota volumes and increase in the out-of-quota tariff to 50%, Kallanish learns.

“The quota changes are not going to fix anything,” says one trader. He queries the proposed hot-rolled quota levels versus actual demand levels, suggesting domestic producers cannot fulfil all the volumes.

“It’s going to be so risky [to import]. It’s tremendously complicated especially with CBAM coming on the back of this. You almost have to expect to pay the 50% tariff,” he adds. “If the HR price goes up in excess of 50%, that’s over £900/tonne [$1,198t], which is going to filter through into all manufacturing products. We’re going to witness inflation, or we import finished goods and shut down manufacturing.”

Another trading source says the changes are concerning for their business. “We don’t want to get caught out, what’s the point in taking that risk?” he says. “The quotas will halve my trading activity and output. Is it enough to sustain my business?”

“The next six months will see such a strain on supply. UK downstream manufacturing will suffer, especially if fabricator costs go up 50% in the next few weeks,” he concludes.

Julian Verden, chairman of the International Steel Trade Association (ISTA), says the association is “astounded” by the provisional detail of the new measures, which were announced as part of the Steel Strategy.

“The new quota numbers suggest that importing steel once these measures are fully in place will be in practical terms nearly impossible for many products and origins as managing quotas, estimating balances and thus the duty risk of 50% will make pricing uncompetitive for the final end users,” he warns.

He sees this could lead to reduced activity, investment and exports of finished products. “This inflationary move is completely unaffordable in the current uncertain environment. ISTA remains committed to supporting UK steel production but is also fully behind the downstream steel using industries and believes this can be achieved with a blend of imports and domestic production rather than a blockade,” Verden concludes.

Another market participant describes the changes as “non-sensical”, and hopes the UK is “posturing” in an attempt to get the EU around the table to negotiate. “[The changes] are not thought through properly. There has been no thought to downstream. This appears to be wholly 100% aligned to steel mills,” he tells Kallanish.

He also queries whether some stockholders who rely on imports will be able to survive. “If this is the new norm, then prices will escalate, domestic producers will fall over, and the UK will lose a huge amount of manufacturing and jobs to foreign shores,” he concludes.

Meanwhile, Laurence McDougall, managing director of All Steels Trading, says there is no clarity without the formal publication of the details of the new measures.

He also queries whether end-users would be able to absorb significantly higher steel prices, while competing against imported finished goods that are not subject to equivalent duties. “Without addressing this imbalance, there is a risk that domestic steel consumption will fade away unless the government closes the loophole,” he warns.

With EU-origin material included in the quotas, this could equate to additional costs in the region of £300-400/t, McDougall adds. He sees immediate market adjustments as unrealistic and therefore price increases will be staged, a strategy employed by some producers since the start of the Middle East conflict.

The supervisory board of Salzgitter AG has elected Ulrike Brouzi as its new chairwoman, Kallanish learns. Her term of office begins with immediate effect. She is the first woman on the chair post

Brouzi is an executive manager of DZ Bank, the central institution for approximately 700 cooperative banks and their around 7,200 branch offices.

Since 2013, she has been a member of the supervisory board of Salzgitter. She has played a key role in shaping the steelmaker’s strategic direction of the past few years, says Gerald Heere, finance minister of state Lower Saxony.

“She is intimately familiar with the group’s processes, structures and strategic direction, and is therefore an excellent choice as chair of the supervisory board,” Heere is quoted as saying by public broadcaster NDR. Heere is a member of Salzgitter’s supervisory board, where he represents the main shareholder, the state of Lower Saxony.

The former chairman, Heinz-Gerhard Wente, stepped down in October 2025. Hans-Jürgen Urban took over as deputy chairman of the supervisory board on an interim basis.