Year: 2026

Germany’s association for mechanical and plant engineering, Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbauer (VDMA), has established a regional chapter for the Benelux region, Kallanish learns.

VDMA so far has extended into Austria, but notes that the new launch of VDMA Benelux is its first “transnational” European regional association outside Germany.

VDMA Benelux, is based in Maastricht, Netherlands where VDMA established a regional office years ago. The new chapter represents a significant and growing number of member companies from the region embracing Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. With a turnover of around €83 billion ($96 billion) in 2025, the region is a key global centre of machine manufacturing that is deeply embedded in European values, the association notes.

“In particular in times of global turmoil and rapid change, the challenges the entrepreneurs face and industry encounters cannot be solved on national level(s) alone. To strengthen and ensure Europe’s competitiveness as well as machinery industry base, actions are needed,” says Arjan Schmits, managing director of VDMA Benelux.

At the first general meeting of VDMA Benelux, Theresa Spaan-Burke, co-owner and innovation director of IBS Precision Engineering BV (Netherlands), was elected chairwoman of the board.

Weakening the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to ease pressure on industry would erode investment certainty, rather than aid competitiveness, with the possibility already causing capital markets and financiers to hesitate in partaking in decarbonisation investment, according to a coalition of over 100 companies and investors.

Instead, the upcoming ETS reform must ensure revenues from ETS are re-deployed by Member States to improve the bankability of decarbonisation projects in industrial sectors, says the coalition, which includes decarbonisation first movers SSAB, Outokumpu, Hydnum, Stegra and GravitHy.

“Revenues need to be channelled towards accelerating industrial electrification by enhancing access to low-carbon energy and supporting breakthrough technologies that reinforce the EU’s industrial base and its strategic autonomy,” it writes in an open letter seen by Kallanish to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.

Calls have been growing from EU industry in recent months for a delay to the phaseout of free ETS emissions, to alleviate the cost burden of blast furnace steelmakers, with Italian steel association Federacciai, voestalpine and Trinecke Zelezarny among the proponents. The phaseout began from 1 January, simultaneously with the phase-in of CBAM.

These calls are a “misdiagnosis of the problem”, instead of “focusing on the structural causes of economic erosion – higher energy prices set by fossil fuels, unfair competition stemming from global overcapacity in certain sectors, insufficient integration of the single market,” the coalition notes.

Weakening ETS would “privilege incumbency over transformation, penalise first movers that built business cases and invested in decarbonisation, and leave the EU without a serious gameplan to compete in new industries,” it adds.

The upcoming ETS revision represents an opportunity for improvement but the trajectory must remain. “Regulatory stability and clarity on the long-term outlook will be critical to unlocking investments in Europe,” the letter states.

Critical will be the continued deployment of abundant, firm and affordable clean power, paired with long term investments in grids, flexibility, efficiency and storage to enable electrification at scale. Consideration should be given to using Member States ETS revenues to support long-term clean industrial Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to provide sufficient predictability for decarbonisation investments, the letter notes.

Also important will be ensuring CBAM functions effectively and, where justified, is extended to prevent carbon leakage in the value chain and additional sectors. ETS revenues, the Innovation Fund and Modernisation Fund should also be effectively disbursed towards scaling up clean technologies.

The coalition urges the European Council to adopt a clear statement at its 19-20 March meeting that removes “any ambiguity about Europe’s path towards energy security, competitiveness and decarbonisation”.

Italian long steelmakers are pushing prices higher in line with other European mills after suspending sales last week, market sources tell Kallanish.

Rebar prices are increased by as much as €70/tonne ($81.48/t), while other products such as merchant bar are seeing more moderate increases of around €30/t. The merchant bar segment remains structurally weak, with reduced consumption levels. Passing on price increases has proved difficult as buyers are struggling to transfer higher costs downstream.

Two distributors and an agent say overall consumption remains slow, with sales of sections or wire rod derivatives helping offset weaker merchant bar demand.

Last month, merchant bar producers attempted to implement increases of around €50/t, though these were later reduced to roughly €20/t. This month, however, rising energy and transport costs are pushing mills to seek new hikes of around €30/t.

Before the latest increases, contracts had been concluded at €270-300/t base ex-works, equivalent to €690-720/t including size extras. Mills are now targeting around €330/t ex-works.

Section prices in Italy are also rising by €40/t after the market leader suspended sales last week due to surging energy costs linked to the US-Iran conflict, in line with several other European producers and ArcelorMittal (see separate article).

First-category sections in Italy are now quoted at around €800/t delivered for April delivery, compared with roughly €760/t delivered before the escalation. Last week, lower levels were still available for imported material.

ArcelorMittal is understood to have resumed quoting this week despite ongoing market volatility and rapidly changing cost conditions, market sources tell Kallanish.

The current environment remains particularly challenging for producers, who are struggling to set prices as their costs continue to change amid geopolitical uncertainty.

European buyers and longs producers note that energy prices have nearly doubled over the past week, while scrap values in Western Europe are also increasing. Following the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, logistics costs are also under pressure.

Like several other European steelmakers, the market leader suspended sales last week while assessing the impact of the rising production costs. According to one source, customers are now waiting for new offers and, in order to avoid disrupting the supply chain, the company has decided to resume quoting. However, offers are reportedly valid only for a limited timeframe of one to two days, allowing the producer to regularly reassess the market situation.

Buyers confirm that the steelmaker is seeking price increases of around €70/tonne ($81.48/t) for its commodity grade longs products, including wire rod, rebar and sections, and about €120/t for high-carbon wire rod.

Other European mills are also implementing similar hikes. In Italy, rebar producers are seeking increases of €70/t after suspending sales last week, while other EU producers are lifting prices for sections and merchant bar by around €40-50/t.

One source believes the conflict is unlikely to end in the short term, suggesting production costs may continue to rise. Another European mill source expects demand to improve in the second quarter following a slow first quarter. Producers throughout Europe report a higher order intake for longs since last week as buyers secure material amid the uncertain outlook.

Meanwhile, a number of northwestern European mills appear to have returned with new price offers which are valid for one day only. ArcelorMittal and British Steel are said to have sent official announcements to their customers in the UK, with hikes of £50/t ($67/t) and £60/t, respectively.

The investigations, launched under the Section 301 trade regulations, will determine whether “those acts, policies and practices are unreasonable or discriminatory, and burden or restrict US commerce,” the USTR said.

The economies subject to these probes are China, the EU, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan and India.

The USTR said that the sectors affected would include aluminium, automobiles, batteries, machinery, non-ferrous metals, semiconductors and steel.

According to estimates by the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity (GFSEC), quoted by the USTR, the world’s total steel excess capacity was expected to increase to 721 million tonnes per year by 2027.

“The Trump administration’s reindustrialization efforts continue to face significant challenges due to foreign economies’ structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors,” USTR ambassador Jamieson Greer said. “This overproduction displaces existing US domestic production, or prevents investment and expansion in US manufacturing production that otherwise would have been brought online.”

The investigations could result in the imposition of additional tariffs or other measures against imports from some or all of the trading partners affected, according to a report by international trade law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg.

But the move was supported by steel market participants, citing long-standing issues of global overcapacity.

“Overcapacity is a serious problem. In some cases, such as Chinese autos and steel, it has wrecked economies and industries as well as cost jobs in America,” Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said on March 12.

“For too long, global overcapacity has plagued a broad array of manufacturing sectors, including steel, aluminium and many others,” Roxanne Brown, international president of the United Steelworkers (USW) trade union, said on the same day. “We must push back against China and other ‘bad actors’ as they swamp world markets with their excess capacity and undermine our domestic industries.”

Public comments on the excess-capacity probe will be accepted until April 15, and a public hearing will be held around May 5 in Washington DC.

The initiation of the investigations came just over a week after US President Donald Trump unveiled his administration’s trade policy agenda.

According to a USTR report on March 2, Trump’s “America First Trade Policy” has decreased the country’s trade deficit in goods and has boosted domestic production.

Steel stockholders in Germany do not see business activity increasing above the average of recent months as a result of the escalating Middle East conflict.

In the long products segment, many mills left the market in the week after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and suspended offers, suggesting that a price hike was imminent, partly in expectation of surging energy costs.

At the annual press conference of large distribution group Klöckner & Co this week, chief executive Guido Kerkhoff said upon inquiry that such incidents do affect market activity, but refrained from giving a clearer picture.

In an information bulletin to customers, another distributor writes that rising oil and gas prices will certainly affect steel prices. But the writer also cautions that the degree of increase “will not least depend on the buying behaviour of market participants”.

Several market participants tell Kallanish they have not seen much extraordinary buying activity since the Middle East situation escalated. “I would have expected [increased buying], and I’m a bit baffled it has not happened,” says a manager of a sections distributor. He recalls panic buying when Russia attacked Ukraine, “when customers came rushing asking for volumes they had booked for delivery two months later”. This is not happening now, he says.

Fears of shortages are so far confined only to fuel. “If you look at the petrol stations here in Stuttgart, the lines are long,” the manager says. In fact, car fuel is the most debated topic in Germany, as many players argue that prices in the country are higher than in most other EU countries.

A spokesman of a coil service centre notes that truck operators are especially suffering from a diesel price that has risen above that of regular petrol, which will likely filter through to freight costs. But in terms of demand and buying activity for steel, “I have not seen an increase resulting from the Iran war. Steel is slower than oil,” he notes.

French rebar contract values are increasing on-month by €20-30/tonne ($23.28-34.92/t) following the escalation of the US-Iran conflict, Kallanish notes.

European producers have lifted offers due to rising production costs linked to higher gas and electricity prices, as well as increased oil prices for transport. Scrap prices in Western Europe have also edged up this month (see separate article).

Distribution sources say the month started very slowly, with the usual weak order intake, but demand jumped after the conflict escalated last week.

One distributor says his sales volumes have doubled compared with a typical week and points to some signs of “panic buying”. However, another large buyer shows a more cautious view of consumption. “The war is not in Europe. Producers do not pay for energy monthly like households, and consumption in France has not changed, particularly in construction, where activity remains weak,” he says. He, however, concedes that buying has picked up but doubts the recent price increases and higher order levels can be sustained.

French rebar prices have risen from an average of about €610/t delivered last month to €640-650/t delivered in recent days, sources indicate. One distributor in southern France says he has achieved up to €660/t delivered, depending on transport costs, as demand last week and this week has been particularly strong.

Author: Natalia Capra France

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