Day: 30 July 2026

Prices for domestic steel hot-rolled coil edged lower in both Italy and Northern Europe on Wednesday July 29 on slow market activity, industry sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday.

In Italy, sources said market was very thin and reported offers at €730-740 ($830-842) per tonne delivered (€715-725 per tonne ex-works), but the upper end of the range was discarded due to limited trading activity seen at this level.

One producer indicated workable prices for simple specifications of HRC at €700 per tonne ex-works and said levels at €710-720 per tonne ex-works were linked to higher specifications and special grades.

The same source reported offers for October production at €720-730 per tonne ex-works.

“Today’s workable levels start at €700 base [per tonne] ex-works as the absolute minimum level possible for higher tonnage, simple specs, and €710-720 [per tonne ex-works] seems increasingly feasible if the spec is rich with low or high thick material, special grades,” the producer said on July 29.

Meanwhile, a buyer reported an indication at €740 per tonne delivered (€725 per tonne ex-works), but it was discarded due to the same lack of trading activity near this level.

The corresponding Fastmarkets daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was €707.50 per tonne on July 29, down by €2.19 per tonne from €709.69 per tonne on July 28.

The index was up by €5 per tonne week on week and by €41.25 per tonne month on month.

In Northern Europe, the market was moving slowly, with no fresh transactions heard during the day.

A buyer reported an indication of workable prices at €700-710 per tonne ex-works, but no other price points were received on July 29, as some market participants were away.

For this reason, prices collected on July 28 were carried over to Wednesday’s index.

On Tuesday, two buyers provided indications at €710 per tonne ex-works, while a third buyer said offers were at €700-730 per tonne ex-works and indicated market levels at €700 per tonne ex-works on the same day.

Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe was calculated at €708.00 per tonne on July 29, down by €0.75 per tonne from €708.75 per tonne on July 28.

The index was down by €3.14 per tonne week on week, but up by €26.75 per tonne month on month.

 

The European import hot-rolled coil market has had a rise in trading activity at the end of July, particularly in its Southern region, even though many market participants have already left the market for summer holidays.
As the initial shock after the announcement of the new import quotas calmed down and buyers got an understanding of their uptake, the activity picked up with a number of sales heard in the past several weeks.

A cargo of Turkish HRC was heard booked last week at €565-570 ($645-650) per tonne CFR for Southern Europe including anti-dumping duty.

An Italian source, however, reported offers at €590 per tonne CFR including anti-dumping duty this week.

Indian material was heard available at $645-655 per tonne CFR this week following several cargoes sold at $650-655 per tonne CFR several weeks earlier.

Most recent offers of Egyptian HRC were heard around €600 per tonne CFR, while several weeks prior a cargo was heard sold at €610-615 per tonne CFR.

Despite this slight pickup in demand, sellers are not moving prices significantly, considering relatively weak domestic markets of their own and the European domestic market as well.

Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr main port Southern Europe was €565-600 per tonne on July 29, down by €5-15 per tonne from €570-615 per tonne on July 22.

The corresponding assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr main port Northern Europe was €565-600 per tonne on July 29, down from €570-640 per tonne on July 22 due to the lack of trading activity and input in the region.

A similar tendency in activity was reported in DDP-based trade, with business mainly concentrated in the South.

Sources reported an Egyptian supplier providing offers on a DDP basis at €720-730 per tonne in Southern Europe, with some hints on deals heard but not completely confirmed by the time of the story publication.

A cargo of Japanese coil was reported sold to Spain at €740 per tonne DDP.

Another market source estimated the general range of DDP prices to the region at €700-750 per tonne, despite the fact that traditionally the gap between CFR and DDP levels was around €100 per tonne.

Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, ddp Southern Europe was €700-740 per tonne on July 29, up from €655-715 per tonne on July 22.

The corresponding assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, ddp Northern Europe was also €700-740 per tonne on July 29, up from €655-710 per tonne on July 22 due to the absence of input.

 

Austria increased its crude steel production in June compared with the previous month, according to worldsteel data.

Output amounted to 663,767 tonnes, up 2.4% month-on-month and 11.7% year-on-year, Kallanish notes.

Austria remained 22nd in the ranking of top global steel producers in June, the data shows.

In January-June, the country produced 3.8 million tonnes of steel, versus 3.65mt in the first six months of 2025, amid the overall EU and global upward trend.

Overall EU output rose 4.6% on-year to 10.8mt in June, while H1 production was 65.3mt compared with 65.5mt in the first six months of 2025.

Austrian steel producer Voestalpine has announced it is planning a second electric arc furnace in Donawitz, in addition to the EAF that is due to start operations at the same site in just under a year.

Earlier this year, the company secured orders in the aerospace sector worth approximately €1 billion ($1.16 billion) over the next five years for its High Performance Metals Division. Production will take place at the Styrian sites in Kapfenberg and Mürzzuschlag, as well as at the Brazilian subsidiary Villares Metals in Sumare.

 

The Spanish Association of Electrical Equipment Manufacturers (AFBEL) warned that antidumping measures on grain-oriented-electrical steel (GOES) could increase transformer production costs, delay investment and undermine European competitiveness.

The European Commission is evaluating whether to expand antidumping measures on GOES imports from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US. The current duties were maintained following a previous expiry review and are due to expire on 18 January 2027 unless a new review is initiated, Kallanish notes.

EU producers may request a review by 18 October 2026 if they can demonstrate that removing the measure would likely result in renewed dumping and injury.

AFBEL argues that any decision taken without considering the impact on the electricity sector could worsen Europe’s existing transformer shortage.

“European industrial autonomy cannot be achieved by undermining the manufacturers that make its critical infrastructure possible,” says the association’s general director Mar Duque. “Europe needs a strong GOES industry, but it also needs a competitive transformer industry, capable of manufacturing the equipment required for electrification.”

The EU transformer industry includes more than 80 plants and employs over 20,000 people.

Estimates submitted during the antidumping investigation suggest European GOES producers can meet only about half of total demand. For the higher-grade GOES used in energy efficient transformers, local supply covers just 27% of demand, leaving a shortfall of about 150,000 tonnes. GOES demand is expected to grow by approximately 10% over the next decade.

AFBEL estimates the measures could increase transformer production costs by up to 30%, depending on equipment type and GOES content. The association warns the resulting costs could reach €800 million ($909.5m) annually for European industry and households.

 

German steelmaker Salzgitter has initiated the decarbonisation of its Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) subsidiary, signing a contract with Tenova for the engineering, delivery, and installation of an electric arc furnace at its Duisburg steelworks, Salzgitter said on 29 July.

The new furnace will be Germany’s largest and the second largest within the European Union with an annual capacity of 2.5 mt and a planned production target of 2 mt of green steel. The implementation phase will start in August this year and is scheduled for completion in 2029.

Raw materials, either ferrous scrap or direct-reduced iron (DRI), will be fed into the system continuously via a conveyor belt system, and the exhaust heat will be used to preheat scrap metal, further decreasing emissions compared with conventional EAFs, Salzgitter said.

To learn more about Salzgitter’s decarbonisation initiatives and those of other steelmakers globally, see McCloskey’s Global Green Steel Profile.

Salzgitter acquired 100% of HKM’s shares in the first half of July, having finalised the transfer of ownership from fellow German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp and Vallourec.

The project will receive EUR200m in funding from the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the “Federal Funding for Industry and Climate Action” programme.

“With the construction of the electric arc furnace, HKM will be directly integrated into the Salzgitter Group’s transformation strategy towards low-carbon steel production,” Gunnar Groebler, Chairman of the Executive Board of Salzgitter, said. “With the electric arc furnace, we are laying the foundation for sustainable and competitive steel production at HKM and strengthening our position as a leading supplier of green steel for industrial value chains.”

Over the past few years, Salzgitter has signed a number of green steel supply agreements with end users, including companies in the automotive and white goods segments.

Salzgitter has not been active in the spot market for green steel, but has reportedly achieved premiums of around EUR300/t for low-CO2 hot-rolled coil (HRC) from its trial plant.

The latest spot deals for smaller lots of green HRC from other European steelmakers have been concluded at premiums of EUR150-180/t.

New decarbonisation investment and ETS

Salzgitter’s announcement of the EAF investment has come at an important time in light of the European Commission’s recent review of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Under the proposed reforms, free allocation – essentially the emissions allowances granted free of charge to polluting installations to mitigate carbon leakage risks – will be extended beyond the current 2034 phase-out date to 2038, reintroducing 15% of lost free allocation into ETS supply post-2028.

However, unlike the present ETS framework, free allocation would become conditional from 2031, limiting freely awarded EUAs to installations that have firmly committed to transformation projects aimed at decarbonising their processes. Specifically, 80% of eligible allowances for the five-year period from 2031-2035 would be granted annually upon proof of a final investment decision (where invested funds meet or exceed the free allocation requirement), with the remaining 20% released once projects enter the construction or operational phase.

Importantly, steelmakers can group installations under “joint decarbonisation investment agreements,” allowing one or more installations to fulfil the decarbonisation investment requirement for free allocation on behalf of all other installations within the agreement, provided the agreement is concluded prior to the submission of 2031-2035 free allocation applications, or by the end of September 2029. While it is not yet clear whether capital expenditures made before the 2029 deadline will qualify as evidence for post-2030 free allocation, it seems likely that the Commission will reward first movers. Moreover, if Salzgitter’s new EAF at HKM falls within the top 10% of best-performing installations, it may also be exempt from the free allocation evidence requirement for the HKM site (though not for other sites unless they qualify under the aforementioned joint agreement).

Previously jointly owned by Salzgitter, Thyssenkrupp, and Vallourec, HKM could previously have been covered by a joint decarbonisation investment agreement that mitigated investment requirements for all three participating companies. However, following Salzgitter’s full acquisition of the site and its stated plans to incorporate HKM into its SALCOS decarbonisation strategy, it seems less likely that HKM investments would benefit its former owners, which will have to commit to their own decarbonisation projects to qualify for free allocation from 2031.

Author: Benjamin Steven

opisnet.com

The European Commission proposed a number of support mechanisms and regulatory reforms in an attempt to better align its net zero goals with industrial realities in July, with primary changes affecting the EU’s flagship climate instrument, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Contained in the 17 July proposal is the Commission’s long anticipated reform proposal for the ETS, as well as the Electrification Action Plan, which together aim to “make Europe the world’s first electro-powered continent,” according to Commission President von der Leyen.

McCloskey previously reported how the bloc’s steelmakers had formed battle lines surrounding the ETS debate, with the two camps generally split between larger integrated steelmakers most exposed to regulatory carbon cost escalations on their existing higher-carbon operations; and greenfield, secondary EAF, and first-mover producers that risked devaluation of their investment case should the ETS’ role as a ratcheting carbon price signal be weakened.

In many ways, the July package can be considered something of a sequel to 2025’s European Steel and Metals Action Plan (ESMAP), which sought to recover the general competitiveness of domestic steelmaking amid global overcapacity pressures.

Viewed retroactively, ESMAP implemented its commitments to varying degrees, with trade restrictions receiving the most attention: the EU’s new tariff-rate quota (TRQ) regime implemented from the start of July has been described as a “new era” for the EU’s steel market by McCloskey’s sources for its impact on international steel accessibility to the bloc, compounded by the definitive stage of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which introduces significant administrative burdens – and financial costs – for domestic steel importers and foreign exporters alike.

However, policy support for domestic production under ESMAP has had a rockier go of it, with the EU’s first official green steel definition – taking the form of a ‘voluntary low-carbon label’ – cut from its scheduled implementation as part of the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), as well as ‘Made in EU’ content thresholds for low-carbon steel in the bloc’s public procurement mandates.

Indeed, the European Commission argued that ‘Made in EU’ content requirements for steel were no longer necessary given the strength of the new TRQ framework (with CBAM providing further limitation) in boosting domestic market share, which seems to indicate a presumption that trade-related competitiveness pressures have been sufficiently alleviated, allowing the Commission to look ahead to support steelmakers in actually getting on with decarbonisation efforts.

The proposed ETS reform, and Electrification Action Plan (EAP) therefore makes a number of changes to the existing carbon cost framework, and aims to rebalance the cost structure of industrial production to benefit industrial electrification.

In that context, the Commission has proposed to continue the practice of ‘free allocation’ – a mechanism that awards free emissions allowances to select energy-intensive industries – beyond its current 2034 exhaustion deadline; introducing a 15% EU Allowances (EUA) buffer across the phase-out curve from 2028, and effectively extending domestic carbon leakage protection until exhaustion in 2038.

According to the Commission, this adjusted trajectory maintains the ETS’ role as an “investment engine” via a strong and predictable carbon price signal, but one better aligned to the real pace of domestic industrial decarbonisation.

Author: Benjamin Steven

opisnet.com