Year: 2026

Steel distribution group Klöckner & Co’s management board and supervisory board have jointly recommended that shareholders accept Worthington Steel’s voluntary public takeover offer, Kallanish notes.

“Following careful review of the offer document, the boards have independently concluded that the offer is in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders,” the boards say in a joint message. “In assessing financial adequacy, the management board and supervisory board also considered the opinions of their respective financial advisors Goldman Sachs Bank Europe and Deutsche Bank. We welcome the offer and recommend that Klöckner & Co shareholders accept Worthington Steel’s offer and tender their shares.”

The members of the management board will tender all shares held by them into the offer. In addition, according to the bidder’s notification, SWOCTEM GmbH, the largest shareholder of Klöckner & Co, has already tendered its entire stake of approximately 41.53% in Klöckner & Co into the offer, they add.

Worthington Steel is offering Klöckner & Co shareholders €11 ($13) in cash per share. The implied total enterprise value of the transaction is approximately €2.1 billion ($2.49 billion),

The offer price represents a premium of approximately 81% on the closing price of the Klöckner & Co share on 5 December 2025, the last day before negotiations regarding a public takeover offer by Worthington Steel were publicly announced. And approximately 98% based on the undisturbed three-month volume-weighted average price of the Klöckner & Co share up to 5 December 2025.

The management board and supervisory board consider the offer price to be attractive, fair and reasonable.

The acceptance period is expected to end on 12 March 2026. Klöckner shareholders can accept Worthington Steel’s takeover offer through their custodian bank and tender their shares into the offer.

The business combination agreement signed on 15 January 2026 between Klöckner & Co and Worthington Steel sets out the key parameters of the planned business combination. The objective of the agreement is to create a foundation for sustainable growth through the complementary orientation of both companies and to expand market presence in Europe and North America.

As part of the partnership, Worthington Steel supports Klöckner & Co’s strategy to focus on higher value-added products and services, and has commited to the long-term development of the group.

European automotive suppliers are calling for the implementation of technology neutrality to ensure innovation drives decarbonisation – not restrictive mandates, according to the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA).

The upcoming Industrial Accelerator Act presents a clear opportunity to keep automotive manufacturing in Europe but its success hinges on one key question: how the EU defines ‘European-made’ components, it claims.

“This is no trial period: Automotive suppliers have announced over 100,000 job cuts since 2024,” says Benjamin Krieger, secretary general of CLEPA. “There is no strong European economy without the factory floors to support it. Right now, with high energy costs and fragmented regulations slowing companies down, producers in Europe are placed at a structural disadvantage. Measures to restore EU competitiveness will take time to deliver, that is why we need local content policies now.”

It references a recent study by Roland Berger reveals that automotive suppliers in the European Union face unfair competition from regions with lower costs, fewer regulations, unilateral tariffs, excess capacity, dumping and subsidies – a combination that threatens up to 350,000 European jobs until 2030, Kallanish notes.

“Importing the cheapest technology today hollows out our innovation capacity tomorrow,” CLEPA adds. “If Europe allows its value chains to erode, we will end up with empty factories – we will trade European independence for permanent dependency on regions with cheaper labour and weaker legal requirements.”

“The Industrial Accelerator Act must be robust. Specifically, it needs an adequate definition of ‘European-made’ vehicles and components,” it notes. “A European vehicle should consist of at least 75% European components. This level is realistic and would not drive-up prices. The study by Roland Berger shows that more than 80% of the components used in vehicles built in the EU already come from European suppliers.”

Automotive suppliers are the engine of Europe’s green transition, investing €30 billion ($35.5 billion) annually in research and development. For these innovations to succeed at scale, however, policy must align with consumer demand. Deloitte’s 2026 global automotive consumer study shows that internal combustion engines remain the leading choice for nearly half of buyers in Germany, France, and the UK while consumer preference for hybrids has risen to 14% in Germany and 23% in France.

To survive global competition and to ensure our strategic autonomy in manufacturing, the EU must move from promises to implementation, delivering these measures fully, and without further delay, CLEPA concludes.

A coalition of European industry players, which includes GravitHy and Hydnum Steel, is calling on the European Commission to strengthen the upcoming Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) and implement demand measures to boost low-carbon industrial products.

E3G, Hydrogen Europe, and Mission Possible Partnership are just some of the 40 organisations also supporting the call.

“Demand-side provisions appear largely confined to public procurement and public support schemes, as well as restricted to a few sectors, namely steel… We strongly support demand-side initiatives for the public sector as an effective lever to create demand. However, the public sector alone cannot create sufficient demand for low-carbon products at scale, and the limited number of sectors targeted risks increasing market fragmentation,” a joint statement seen by Kallanish says.

It adds that the Commission’s internal draft is unclear as to whether low-carbon requirements for public procurement and public schemes would be complementary or subordinated to origin-based criteria.

The signatories argue that without stronger market measures that scale up demand, European producers of low-carbon products will struggle to compete globally.

They recommend a range of policy tools, including EU harmonised product standards, mandatory green public procurement with minimum content quotas for low-carbon and EU/EEA origin requirements, and mechanisms to stimulate private demand through mandates and financial de-risking instruments.

The IAA is expected to play a key role in implementing parts of the European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal by scaling up low-carbon manufacturing and creating competitive conditions for European products.

The signatories warn that simply relying on public sector procurement will be insufficient to drive the transition to net-zero technologies. They say that stronger demand instruments will help secure investment, maintain jobs and attract new players to Europe’s clean industrial value chains.

The IAA is currently under development and expected to be presented by the Commission as part of its 2026 work programme.

GravitHy is building a green hydrogen-based direct reduced iron and hot-briquetted iron plant in Fos-sur-Mer, Southern France. The facility is projected to produce up to 2 million tonnes/year of DRI and HBI, fed with hydrogen produced by a 750 MW electrolyser (see Kallanish passim).

Bosnia plans to impose a 30% tariff on steel imports for 200 days, according to eKapija.

Bosnia’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations has prepared the proposal in response to a request from local steelmaker Nova Zeljezara Zenica. “It is subject to approval by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina following public consultations. The rationale for this move is to protect local production,” authorities are quoted as saying.

Ministry data show the overall increase in reinforcing mesh imports to Bosnia last year was 192.87% compared to the four-year average. Serbia was the main supplier, providing over 9,000 tonnes, a 408% increase over the 2021-2024 period, according to the ministry data.

Imports of rebar in coils from Turkey in 2025 increased by 885% compared to the four-year average, while imports of rod increased by 229.56%.

Italy ranked second with imports of 7,794t, double the previous period’s figure, Kallanish notes.

The ministry views this as obvious pressure from foreign manufacturers selling their products in Bosnia, while local capacity remains unused. “This practice threatens the overall stability of the construction sector, as consumers become dependent on imported products already present on the domestic market,” the ministry notes.

The Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VTK/STKBiH) urged Bosnian authorities to lodge a complaint with Serbia and the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) joint committee over Serbia’s new steel import quotas.

The quotas are in effect since 1 January and impact rebar, wire rod and hot and cold rolled steel, with a 50% duty imposed on imports above the allocated tonnages (see Kallanish passim). The measure is valid for six months.

ArcelorMittal says it has shut down blast furnace B at its Gijón plant in Spain. The decision was made on Thursday following the company’s failed efforts to ignite the operation using complex methods after completing maintenance in September.

“Due to the unsuccessful outcome of the process to stabilise BF B, we decided to initiate the process for the cold idling and emptying of the facility to be able to subsequently restart the facility safely,” ArcelorMittal’s spokesperson tells Kallanish.

The steelmaker estimates that the work will last several months before the BF can resume operations.

“We will try to minimise the impact of this measure and will organise the necessary resources to protect the needs of our customers to the fullest extent throughout the duration of this temporary shutdown,” ArcelorMittal adds.

Currently the steelmaker operates a single blast furnace in Spain. That limits the supply of pig iron for the finished steel production at the Gijón and Avilés lines, forcing ArcelorMittal to import billets from its other European plants.

Salzgitter says it is expanding its portfolio in the field of defence with the strategic acquisition of Thyrolf & Uhle, a medium-sized processor of security steels, Kallanish learns.

Thyrolf & Uhleis makes steel components for infrastructure and ballistic protection, and for civil and military vehicle construction. At the company headquarters in Dessau-Rosslau, Germany, around 100 employees process over 12,000 tonnes/year of steel.

For Salzgitter, the acquisition of Thyrolf & Uhle represents an expansion of expertise, as the company holds the necessary certifications for processing parts made from security steels, as well as the manufacturer qualification stipulated by German standard DIN 2303.

“Germany and Europe need an efficient defence industry with a qualified materials base in order to prevail in the face of geopolitical upheaval. This is precisely where we as Salzgitter AG are strengthening our offerings,” says chief executive Gunnar Groebler.

EU policymakers should prioritise integrating the Single Market rather than establishing trade barriers to ensure small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) thrive, says German stainless steel trader Gerber Group.

As EU leaders met at Alden Biesen on Thursday, Gerber warned that tackling rising costs, expanding bureaucracy, and an “increasingly dysfunctional” Single Market are key to solving Europe’s competitiveness problem, rather than trade protection. “Non-tariff barriers, regulatory fragmentation, and administrative requirements now function effectively as internal tariffs ranging from 65-100%,” the firm tells Kallanish.

“The European Single Market is stagnating while prices and production costs continue to rise. Protective instruments such as tariffs, quotas, or origin requirements increase the cost of European value creation instead of safeguarding it,” with additional costs passed on to consumers, says chief executive Thorsten Gerber.

Unlike large corporations, SMEs are unable to absorb rising costs or relocate production internationally. Trade barriers exacerbate existing imbalances within the EU, a Single Market composed of highly diverse economies, the firm notes.

It suggests policymakers implement no new trade barriers without an integrated overall impact assessment, remove protection measures that exclusively benefit large industries, and prioritise eliminating internal market barriers.

Also required are mandatory SME impact checks for new and planned initiatives, a measurable reduction of bureaucracy as a competitiveness objective, and for trade policy to be a complement to, not substitute for, a functioning Single Market, Gerber concludes.

Spanish rebar demand is strong despite prices remaining elevated, Kallanish learns from local market sources. Most distributors started February by stocking up on larger volumes of material, in anticipation of an albeit slight price hike by mills.

Scrap suppliers, however, have doubts over the evolution of the market following the international movements seen in recent weeks.

“Spanish rebar prices have been stable after recovering at the end of January,” one source comments. “Mills are once again trying to up their offers by €5-10/tonne ($5.93-11.87/t) so far this week.”

Most distributors locked in purchases ahead of the expected price increase, securing larger-than-usual tonnages, another market participant says. “The long steel market in Spain is now more predictable, as private construction activity and the progress of major public works projects are moving forward. Therefore, this increase in restocking ensures business stability in the face of possible price volatility in the coming months,” he observes.

Current offers for 16mm rebar in Spain are at €388-393/t ($460.87-466.81) base. Including €262/t size extras and loading expenses, transaction values are at €650-655/t ex-works.

The domestic scrap market situation, meanwhile, appears somewhat unusual at present, a supplier notes. “Most large plants experienced shortages of material, but preferred to limit their purchases. There was a situation of bypassing the increase in international prices in anticipation of them falling, and collectors were unable to take advantage of the situation,” he says.

Another seller confirms the increase in sales expected at the beginning of the month did not materialise. “Even so, scrap collection activity remains strong, and market demand is expected to rebound by the end of February and early March, although without price growth,” he adds.

The second week of February began with auto bundle quality scrap quoted at €355/t delivered in the Spanish market. Both new E8 grade scrap and shredded E40 grade are generally offered at €325/t. Other qualities, E3 and E1, are respectively at €315/t and €275/t delivered.

After Italian rebar prices ticked up by around €15/tonne ($17.77/t) last month, momentum for further increases appears to be fading, with the €320/t base ex-works level targeted by producers in January now widely seen as unachievable, Kallanish notes.

The €320/t base level has been concluded only in isolated cases for single truckload volumes. Current market assessments place contract prices at around €300/t base ex-works, although several participants are expecting levels to soften further in coming weeks, potentially retreating to €280–290/t base ex-works.

Buyers say that in the current sluggish market, price increases rarely hold for more than a couple of weeks. Activity among construction companies and distributors remains weak. In central Italy, prolonged heavy rainfall has delayed activity at building sites, while sources agree that private residential construction has slowed significantly and demand from new projects remains unreliable. One source adds that despite cost pressure from higher scrap and energy prices, producers may be forced to accept lower rebar prices in the second half of the month.

Mesh prices are also stable at €390-400/t base ex-works, plus approximately €300/t in extras. Including size extras of €260-270/t, effective rebar transaction prices are currently assessed at €560-580/t ex-works, sources suggest. One steelmaker is rumoured to have decreased extras only for some commodity grade mesh by €20/t to possibly stimulate demand. Others may follow, sources believe.