Year: 2026

Steel trading and processing group Trasteel is going public through a merger with Sizzle Acquisition Corp. II, a Cayman Islands-based special purpose acquisition company listed on Nasdaq under the ticker Szzl, Kallanish notes.

Trasteel and Sizzle II will form a new publicly listed holding company, called Pubco, subject to approval by shareholders of both entities and standard closing conditions.

The new entity is expected to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market under TSTL. Both Trasteel and Sizzle II will become subsidiaries. The transaction is expected to close by end of 2026.

Trasteel intends to use proceeds from this transaction for strategic acquisitions and investments. The transaction values Trasteel at a pre-money equity value of $800 million.

The value of the combined company is expected to be approximately $1.3 billion, assuming no redemptions by public shareholders of Sizzle II. This is based on estimated shares outstanding immediately after closing at $10/share and accounting for estimated net debt of approximately $184m.

Existing Trasteel shareholders will roll 100% of their equity into the new public company.

“The need for additional steel products in Europe and the rest of the world will only continue to accelerate as demand continues to outstrip supply. The funds raised through this transaction, together with gaining access to the public capital markets by listing on Nasdaq, will allow us to achieve our goals in 2027 and beyond,” says Trasteel’s chairman Giuseppe Mannina and ceo Gianfranco Imperato .

Sizzle II forecasts global steel demand to continue to increase. It believes that Trasteel will benefit from this increase in demand.

The company will be able “to weather geo-political risk and macroeconomic headwinds, while generating consistent results,” ceo Steve Salis comments.

Trasteel, which owns 13 facilities in six countries and is currently owned by Giuseppe Mannina, Fratelli Cosulich SpA and Gianfranco Imperato, has transformed from a steel trading company to a trading and steel processing firm each representing approximately half of total sales.

The company operates across more than 60 countries, covering the full steel supply chain, including raw materials, energy trading, non-ferrous metals and industrial transformation.

Author: Natalia Capra

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ArcelorMittal is seeking full control of ArcelorMittal CLN Distribuzione Italia (AMCLN), the Italian flat steel service centre joint venture it owns alongside CLN since 2015.

The European Commission has published the merger notification in the Official Journal, opening a period for third-party observations, Kallanish notes.

The transaction would give ArcelorMittal, which currently holds a minority stake in the service centre, full control over AMCLN. This follows a difficult period for CLN, which has faced financial pressure due to deteriorating conditions in the automotive sector.

AMCLN combines several service centre assets in Italy and operates subsidiaries including Delna, active in metal storage and pickling, and Tamagnone, specialising in coil transport and storage. The Commission’s preliminary examination will determine whether the transaction falls within the scope of the EU Merger Regulation.

ArcelorMittal declined to comment when approached by Kallanish.

Author: Natalia Capra

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The pressure on the European steel value chain demands faster action than EU decision-making currently affords, with rising volumes of processed products imports a particular concern, says EUROMETAL.

The distributor and processor association has launched a call to action directed at the European Commission and all member countries, supported by 300 signatures representing stakeholders across the entire value chain.

Effective and immediately applicable trade measures are needed now, aligned with those already implemented by, for example, the United States and Canada, the association urges.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the Wire + Tube trade fair in Düsseldorf on Tuesday, EUROMETAL president Alexander Julius highlighted the slowness of processes within European politics, whereas the current critical pressure on European companies demands swift action, the “Trumpish” way. “We cannot wait another one or two years,” Kallanish heard him say at the conference.

The initiative was started in March last year with an initial visit to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said Georgios Giovanakis, chief sales officer of thyssenkrupp Steel. He was accompanied on the visit by Heino Buddenberg, chief executive of cold-roller Wälzholz, and Markus Fix of service centre DM Stahl, all of which also sat on Tuesday’s press conference panel.

While measures like CBAM point in the right direction, they are too complicated and slow in taking effect, the panellists warned. The current catalogue of measures also needs to reach further downstream the value chain, to cover all products made of steel. “The chain breaks at the weakest part,” said Fix. “And the chain can be pretty long, reaching over five or six stages.”

One important aspect they pointed out to the Commission was the danger to European independence of not defending its manufacturing industries. Julius referred to recent wars and the associated trade conflicts, warning that Europe becoming dependent on other countries would leave it vulnerable if they decided to restrict supply.

He also pointed out that the old logic of international free trade no longer applies. Economists in former times did not foresee that one nation would produce hundreds of millions of tonnes of steel more than it needs, and would pull down prices internationally in order to find markets, he said.

Author: Christian Koehl

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A large European rebar producer describes sentiment in the sector at the Tube and Wire trade show in Düsseldorf as positive, with all producers moving to increase prices across their long products ranges, Kallanish learns.

Some mills are using the event to communicate increases directly to clients, while others have already announced increases since the show opened. The source believes that the general mood is improving alongside recovering margins. 

Italian rebar producers are pushing prices up again this week, with offers now at €440/tonne ($518.54/t) base ex-works, a €30/t increase on last week.

Last week mills suspended sales while initially considering increases of €20/tonne, driven by sharply rising costs linked to the US-Iran conflict.

In Italy, despite initial resistance by buyers to a chain of increases over the past month, contract prices have risen significantly since early March, before the conflict started. Transactions last week were being concluded at €400-420/t base ex-works. The €440/t level is described as an asking price currently.

Buyers at the event say that this is a bubble that will burst in time as the increases are driven solely by speculation while demand has remained the same.

“We are writing officially to all our clients” one buyer says, “many of whom buy monthly and are still being delivered at March prices. Some are saying they will pause their building sites. We have demand from infrastructure, but the private sector is consuming very little at the moment.”

While some distributors with high stocks have chosen not to buy in April and can afford to wait, others have already committed at €400-420/t base ex-works. Including size extras of €260-270/t, effective transaction prices for Italian rebar are currently assessed at €660-680/t ex-works.

A French buyer at the event tells Kallanish that all European producers are pushing prices up and in France the level of €700/t delivered will consolidate in the coming week. ArcelorMittal is increasing all its long products by €50/t and Italian and Spanish mills are proving the most aggressive and uncompromising with their increases.

Another trade show participant notes that the price increases are being driven not only by higher input costs but also by CBAM and the incoming safeguard regulations, which are discouraging imports of not only rebar but also cheaper billets from third countries.

Author: Natalia Capra

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Sentiment in the flat downstream segment is decidedly cautious this week according to sources at the Tube and Wire trade show in Düsseldorf.

They are describing a market weighed down by unreliable downstream demand and the difficulty faced by service centres and re-rollers in passing hot rolled coil (HRC) price increases through to customers.

The market mood at the show appears two-tiered: producers with a broadly positive outlook and preparing further price increases, while the manufacturing sector is grappling with demand weakness and financial pressure, overwhelmed by the geopolitical uncertainty, Kallanish notes.

No further coil price increase announcements are expected during the event, according to multiple sources. However, mills are said to be readying additional hikes to be implemented around the time of the European Commission’s new safeguard announcement.

One steelmaker source tells Kallanish that demand is not exceptional, but order books are filling steadily, adding there is no urgency to sell. No price increase is being considered at present, the source confirms, as the market continues to gradually absorb recent HRC hikes. European HRC prices are currently stable week-on-week at €700-720/tonne ($825.01-848.59/t) base delivered or ex-works depending on order size.

According to traders, the level of import transactions remains low as only large processors are continuing to buy globally. Import offers for service centres have dried up, with buyers staying away from the import market due to CBAM charges and the approaching new safeguard measures. The sole exception is cold rolled coil, where structural European shortages are forcing buyers to continue sourcing on a ddp basis at €860-880/t on average.

Service centre sources report improved margins despite unreliable demand, supported by rising sheet prices. Many are still depleting stocks of lower priced HRC purchased on the import market ahead of the CBAM implementation, providing several months of financial relieve.

However, the uncertainty emerging in Dusseldorf is that service centres will now need to reassess their HRC costs on the basis of more recent purchases, meaning their selling prices will have to move higher. Hot rolled sheets are currently at €770-780/t delivered on average, but with the market leader quoting HRC at €750/t for Southern Europe and the current lower imports, margins will soon come under pressure and profitability is at risk for many service centres.

Author: Natalia Capra

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The National Association of Steel Service Centres (NASS) is to close, with the International Steel Trade Association (ISTA) being passed exclusive rights to its name, Kallanish learns from a joint statement.

Ian Darby, NASS director general, says “it is with deep regret” that the association, which was established in 1927, has come to an end in its current format. He notes the “challenging” financial viability of the organisation since he became director general in May 2023.

“It is with deep sadness that I could not reverse the trend of falling subscriptions to keep the organisation going to its 100^th year,” he adds.

ISTA has been granted full and exclusive right to the use of the NASS name. In a statement, ISTA says it is “most honoured to have been passed by NASS the great names of both the National Association of Steel Stockholders and the National Association of Steel Service Centres.”

ISTA is to reach out to all existing NASS members and invite them to join the association, which has more than 100 members, including traders, downstream manufacturers, service centres, stockholders, fabricators, shipowners, port handlers, and insurers. These members account for approximately 25% of imports into the combined UK and EU market.

ISTA says it has built a sound relationship with the Trade Remedies Authority with regards to current safeguarding and anti-dumping investigations. It is closely liaising with the DBT and government ministers with regard to the replacement of safeguarding from 1 July.

UK steel industry associations are continuing to evolve, with the North Eastern Association of Steel Stockholders (NEASS) rebranding as the National Steel Association (NSA) last year. NSA says it is the largest steel trade association membership in the UK & Northern Ireland. Membership has been growing, now reaching more than 170 members, up from 100 last year.

Author: Carrie Bone

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The European Emissions Trading System (ETS) needs to be adapted to ensure the cost of decarbonisation can be borne by industry and security of supply is not jeopardised, according to a Euractiv panel discussion held in Brussels on Wednesday.

“We must not give up the free allocation in ETS to sectors exposed to carbon leakage,” secretary of state at Poland’s climate and environment ministry Krzysztof Bolesta warned during the discussion monitored by Kallanish. “This is the best and proven way to actually protect their competitiveness and make sure that they don’t have a big incentive to leave Europe.”

ETS has received increasing attention in the weeks since the Middle East conflict erupted and lifted global energy prices, further impacting European industry’s already shaky competitiveness. Free allowances have started to be phased out since 1 January and are scheduled to disappear by 2034, unless the European Commission amends the timeline as part of its ETS review, expected in July.

Italian, Austrian and Czech steelmaking representatives have been particularly vocal in recent months about the need to delay the phase-out.

“The linear [free allocation] reduction factor needs to be a bit lowered to give industries more space and time to decarbonise. So, there’s still room in the system towards 2050; we don’t need to close the system in the late 2030s because then companies don’t know what to do,” Bolesta continued.

EU climate policy has converged firmly with industry and security concerns. “It is existential for Europe, not just for protecting the climate, but even maybe more so for economic competitiveness reasons, that we continue this transition,” said director general of DG CLIMA, European Commission Kurt Vandenberghe. “It’s getting fossil out of our system as quickly as possible, but in a cost efficient manner that does not jeopardise our security of supply.”

The ETS revision will be part of an overall revision of the post-2030 framework for EU energy and climate. “The line that we will follow is very clear. We keep the direction, we stay the course, but we make it less prescriptive. It has to be really a big machine to drive investment and innovation, so that we modernise on the energy system, and that we have a renewal of our industry in Europe.”

ETS nevertheless remains crucial as a driving force for energy independence. Only a few months ago, “the narrative was quite different … where it was not so clear this consequence of the over reliance that we have on fossils”, said deputy director & head of policy, Bellona Europa Lina Strandvåg Nagell. “And that seems to be a mistake we’re doing as a society repeatedly, where we make the rules for the good times, and we forget why we were actually doing them in the first place.”

Any revision to the system should not punish the first movers who have already spent big sums on decarbonisation, she added.

The system would benefit from the establishment of an institution to govern the ETS price, “like a central bank … essentially the MSR [Market Stability Reserve] but equipped with some new powers”, suggested Bolesta. Vandenberghe countered saying “the mood is not for creating new institutions of any kind”, but that the rules-based management of the MSR will ensure credible pricing.

The Commission supports the inclusion of international carbon credits in the European climate policy framework, but there will be “strict conditions on the integrity of these credits” to ensure they can be trusted, he added.

There is meanwhile “no hesitation” that nuclear energy “will play a big role” in the EU’s energy mix by 2050, he continued. The Commission will use part of the Innovation Fund to help finance the development of small, modern reactors in Europe. CCUS will also be required, he added.

“We don’t do climate policy for the climate only anymore. It’s really for industry and security. Secondly, there will be no green transition with red finance numbers for business, but it will also be no black numbers for business if there is no green transition,” Vandenberghe concluded.

Author: Adam Smith

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Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm, known as Thor, says it has installed the world’s first turbine with CO2-reduced steel towers and recyclable rotor blades, according to project operator, RWE.

The German-based energy group says it is the first company worldwide to use Siemens Gamesa’s GreenerTower. The tower plates are made from steel with at least 63% lower CO2 emissions than conventional steel by using renewable-powered furnaces and scrap steel, Kallanish understands.

In addition, the Thor windfarm will feature Siemens Gamesa’s recyclable rotor blades. Due to an innovative resin, the composite materials in these blades can be separated and reused, for instance in new casting applications in the automotive or consumer goods industries. RWE explains.

The Thor offshore wind farm off Denmark’s west coast will be laid out for a capacity of 1.1 gigawatts.  In total, 72 wind turbines, each with a capacity of up to 15 megawatts, will be installed by the end of 2026. Half of them will be equipped with steel towers produced with a lower carbon footprint, and 40 turbines will feature a total of 120 recyclable rotor blades.

When fully operational in 2027, Thor will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than one million Danish households. Thor offshore wind farm is a joint project between RWE (51%) and Norges Bank Investment Management (49%). RWE is in charge of construction and operations throughout Thor’s lifecycle.

Swedish green steel start-up Stegra says it will accelerate construction activities following an in-principle €1.4 billion ($1.65 billion) financing agreement, Kallanish reports.

Wallenberg Investments has led the financing round with a consortium with Temasek and IMAS. Existing Stegra shareholders, including Altor, Hy24 and Just Climate, also participated. The new capital, subject to credit approvals, will enable the completion and commissioning of Stegra’s green steel plant in Boden.

“After several slower months during the funding activities, Stegra will now ramp up construction activities,” the company says, noting the project timeline is currently under review.

The plant is designed to produce up to 5 million tonnes/year of green steel by 2030, running an electrolysis capacity of 700 megawatts.

The first steel production was initially expected this year. However, the company previously confirmed a temporary construction break late last year. It denied that financial struggles were risking the viability of a new Swedish start-up, following the downfall of battery maker Northvolt.

Stegra’s chief executive Henrik Henriksson says the financing reflects the “strong conviction” in its business model amid a “very challenging macro-environment”.

“We are convinced of the competitiveness of Stegra and the commercial attractiveness of green steel … while remaining clear-eyed about the challenges that lie ahead,” comments Leif Johansson, adviser to the consortium led by Wallenberg Investments. “We also consider the project to be of great importance to Sweden’s position as an industrial nation.”

SteelWatch executive director Caroline Ashley welcomes the announcement saying it signals the change towards “truly clean” steelmaking at scale is happening. “Naysayers have had their day,” she adds.

Stegra expects the deal to close in June, when Johansson will become Stegra’s new chair of the board. Wallenberg Investments’ senior industrialist Håkan Buskhe and Altor’s managing partner Paal Weberg will also join the board.

Kallanish has contacted Stegra for clarification on the new timeline.

Italian steelmaker and processor Marcegaglia has awarded a contract worth approximately €450 million ($530.37m) to equipment maker Danieli for its coil mill project in Fos-sur-Mer, southern France, Kallanish learns from the company.

A final investment decision for the project is expected by end-2026, subject to completion of the permitting process.

The total investment for the mill, known as the Mistral Project, will amount to approximately €1 billion, the largest investment in Marcegaglia’s history, a company source confirms. The plant will have an annual capacity of up to 3 million tonnes of stainless and carbon steel hot-rolled coil, covering roughly 35% of the group’s total coil and slab requirements. Output will primarily supply its Italian downstream facilities.

The new mill will have an electric arc furnace, a single‑strand continuous slab caster producing thick slab, and a hot-strip mill. This will ensure “the utmost flexibility by applying different charging mix, stable production performance, consistent product quality, and operational robustness across a wide range of flat steel grades,” a company note explains.

The use of scrap, low-carbon HBI, and nuclear and renewable energy is expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional steelmaking routes.

The complex will be engineered to meet European environmental and safety standards, incorporating advanced automation and energy-efficient technologies.