IAA needs revision to generate transition investments
The Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) proposal’s failure to include a “Made in Europe” mandate for steel means it will not generate the investment needed for the low-carbon transition of Europe’s steel industry, says Eurofer.
The European Commission confirmed in March its IAA legislative proposal includes a stipulation that 25% of steel volume procured for public projects launched from 2029 must be low-emission. However, given the forthcoming new steel trade regime, a “made in EU” requirement was not included.
“If Europe wants to decarbonise its steel industry, it must create demand for low-carbon steel made in Europe. Otherwise, the EU risks funding foreign production while weakening investment, jobs and industrial capacity at home,” Eurofer director general Axel Eggert says in a note sent to Kallanish.
Although steel in public procurement does not include an EU mandate, other industries do, including automotive, a large steel consumer.
“While CO2 credit schemes require steel of Union origin, this does not apply to vehicles purchased under public procurement and public schemes that require low-carbon steel. This risks market confusion and weakens the demand signal. Therefore, products that are classed as ‘Made in EU’ should also include a substantial minimum share of low-carbon steel of Union origin,” Eurofer notes.
Eurofer is also calling for a single, clear definition of Union origin, based on steel that is melted and poured in the EU, to ensure that public procurement and support schemes genuinely prioritise European production.
“A central concern is the lack of robust and consistent ‘Union origin’ rules. Under the current proposal, products labelled as ‘Made in EU’ could include steel produced outside the EU and only processed within Europe. As more than 75% of EU steel imports come from free trade agreement partners, products from nearly 80 countries could qualify for EU support schemes despite not being subject to comparable carbon costs leaving the European steel industry at a distinct disadvantage,” the association notes.
It is also seeking higher minimum shares of low-emission steel in public procurement and support schemes and a broader scope covering strategic sectors such as wind energy and electrical steel components.
Without these adjustments, the IAA risks shifting emissions and investment abroad, Eurofer asserts.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Employers’ Group concluded in a debate last week that substantial revisions are needed to the IAA. This is because it does not sufficiently guarantee demand for low-carbon industrial products produced in the EU, nor does it adequately address the cost gap associated with decarbonisation.
In its IAA impact assessment, the Commission noted that mandating low-emission steel use in the EU’s construction and automotive sectors would allow steel to gain a green premium that will be partially passed on to the price of final products. This could push further decarbonisation investment decisions.
Author: Adam Smith
Greensill silence on Trasteel bid risks Magona bankruptcy
Trasteel has confirmed to authorities its interest in coil service centre Magona and submitted an offer to lease and subsequently acquire control of the company, sources close to the dossier tell Kallanish.
The move could give a strong boost to efforts to restart the Piombino facility. “Of great concern, however, is the communication from Magona’s lawyers indicating that the administrator of Greensill Bank has yet to respond to Trasteel’s offers. This situation is prolonging an unacceptable period of uncertainty not only for workers, but also for Italian institutions,” Italy’s Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (Mimit) says in a note seen by Kallanish.
A new round of talks was held last month at Mimit in Rome on the future of Magona, which has been involved in a prolonged crisis following the collapse of its owners, Liberty Steel and its controlling shareholder, lender Greensill Bank. Magona has not operated since August last year, except for a section of the mill operating for two weeks in December, a union source confirms.
“Trasteel has done what was needed to at least lease the company for the moment. We have the buyer but we don’t have the seller,” another informed source comments. Magona is at risk of bankruptcy by mid-June, they add. Trasteel is said to be willing to pay €45 million ($52.93m) to lease the company, a sum that would be deducted from the eventual purchase price.
The collapse of Greensill in March 2021 left Liberty on the brink of insolvency and the firm has since been battling to find new sources of financing to continue operations.
Trasteel was not available for comment before press deadline.
Author: Natalia Capra
European Commission clears ArcelorMittal CLN merger
The European Commission has cleared the merger between ArcelorMittal and its Italian flat steel service centre joint venture, ArcelorMittal CLN Distribuzione Italia, which it has co-owned with CLN since 2015, Kallanish learns from the Commission.
“The Commission concluded that the notified transaction would not raise competition concerns, given the companies’ limited market positions resulting from the proposed transaction. The notified transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure,” it says in a note.
The transaction will 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.
Author: Natalia Capra
European steel industry demands stricter origin rules in EU act
Europe’s steel industry is urging the EU to introduce stricter rules of origin in the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, warning that without such measures, public procurement and support schemes could end up funding foreign steel imports rather than domestic production.
The legislation must define Union-origin steel as material melted and poured within the EU to ensure decarbonization investments genuinely support European steelmakers, according to Eurofer, the European Steel Association. Under current drafting, products labeled “Made in EU” could include steel produced outside the bloc and only processed within Europe, the industry body said.
“If Europe wants to decarbonize its steel industry, it must create demand for low-carbon steel made in Europe,” Axel Eggert, director general of Eurofer, said. “Otherwise, the EU risks funding foreign production while weakening investment, jobs and industrial capacity at home.”
The warning comes as the European Commission pushes ahead with the Industrial Accelerator Act, which aims to expedite industrial decarbonization and increase manufacturing contribution to at least 20% of EU gross domestic product. A central plank of the legislation is the creation of lead markets for low-carbon steel across sectors, including automotive, defense and construction.
This is not the first time the association has called for strict labeling; this time, it has set out more details with its paper.
Origin concerns
Eurofer’s concerns center on the lack of robust Union-origin requirements in the current proposal. The steel body said more than 75% of EU steel imports come from free trade agreement partners, meaning products from nearly 80 countries could qualify for EU support schemes despite not facing comparable carbon costs.
This would leave the European steel industry at a distinct disadvantage, Eurofer said. In a separate paper published on May 6, the association is also calling for a single, clear definition of Union origin — based on steel that is melted and poured in the EU — to ensure that public procurement and support schemes genuinely prioritize European production and prevent circumvention and market confusion.
In the paper, Eurofer also called for greater ambition in public procurement and support schemes, urging minimum shares of at least 50% low-carbon Union-origin steel applied to 100% of support scheme budget allocations. The requirements should extend to Net-Zero Industry Act technologies and strategic components, it said.
The steel body warned that without these improvements, the Industrial Accelerator Act risks shifting emissions and investment abroad rather than anchoring them in Europe, weakening both industrial competitiveness and the EU’s strategic autonomy.
Other recommendations include swift implementation of low-carbon steel labeling to support transparent lead markets, flexible designation of acceleration areas to cover geographically dispersed industrial sites, and inclusion of strategic sectors such as wind energy and electrical steel components in foreign direct investment screening.
Eurofer said the energy-intensive industry definition should not be conditional on being located in an acceleration area.
Author: Annalisa Villa
Tenaris appoints Gabriel Podskubka to succeed ceo Paolo Rocca
Tenaris has appointed Gabriel Podskubka as its new chief executive, the company says in a statement seen by Kallanish. Podskubka succeeds Paolo Rocca, who will continue to serve as chairman of the board.
“We would like to express our profound gratitude to Paolo Rocca for his outstanding leadership in building the company into the clear global leader that it is today and for being the architect of the continuous growth of Tenaris over the past 25 years,” the global pipe manufacturer states.
Podskubka has been Tenaris’ chief operating officer since 2023. He joined the company in 1995 and has held leadership positions across marketing, commercial and industrial functions, including heading the Luxembourg-based company’s Eastern European operations in 2009. He served as president of its Eastern Hemisphere operations from 2013 to 2023.
Author: Todor Kirkov
Klöckner steps up sale of SSC Becker
Steel distribution group Klöckner & Co is making progress with the sale of its unit Becker Group and is shortlisting candidates for a takeover, Kallanish observes.
The divestment process for Becker Group, which was announced in January “is proceeding as planned,” Klöckner has said while announcing its quarterly results.
It says that several non-binding offers were received after 31 March, and that the prospective buyers are currently in the due diligence phase.
Becker Group consists of steel service centre Becker Stahl and Becker Aluminium-Service in Bönen, as well as Becker Stainless in southern Germany, and Umformtechnik Stendal in eastern Germany.
Becker Stahl is Germany’s largest steel service centre with a capacity to handle 1 million tonnes/year of coil/strip. It was sold by its founder and then managing owner Ulrich Lollert to Klöckner around 16 years ago.
The intention of selling Becker was announced at the same time as the takeover move by US group Worthington Steel became known. Klöckner did not say if the two moves are related, or if the divestment of Becker was part of the negotiations with Worthington.
Market sources believe this to be the case, with Worthington reportedly interested in Klöckner’s successful US operations.
Author: Christian Koehl
France’s steel product export value down 6.1 percent in Jan-Feb 2026
According to the statistics released by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry, in the January-February period this year France’s basic steel product and ferroalloy exports amounted to a value of €1.52 billion, decreasing by 6.1 percent year on year.
In the given period, France exported €186.17 million of steel pipes and tubes – down 9.8 percent, €77.52 million of cold rolled steel bars – up by 3.1 percent, €108.02 million of cold rolled steel strip – up 14.2 percent, €52.96 million of cold drawn wire – increasing by 4.6 percent, and €124.78 million of metal structures and parts – down by 11.8 percent, all compared to the same period of 2025.
Imports amounted to a value of €1.5 billion, decreasing by 2.7 percent year on year
In the given period, France imported €338.67 million of steel pipes and tubes – up 2.1 percent, €82.04 million of cold rolled steel bars – down by seven percent, €105.29 million of cold rolled steel strip – dropping by 8.4 percent, €75.16 million of cold drawn wire – falling by 9.3 percent, and €377.11 million of metal structures and parts – decreasing by 13.5 percent, all compared to the same period of 2025.
Author: SteelOrbis Editorial Team
MEPs urge Commission to ‘reassess’ CBAM for Ukraine
During a 5 May debate on the CBAM carbon border levy, MEPs in the environment committee, ENVI, called for a rethink on how the EU’s flagship tax on carbon-intensive imports applies to war-hit Ukraine.
The move comes after the CEO of leading Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest told Politico that the Commission was in talks with Kyiv about a possible exemption. Last year, Ukraine was the leading exporter, by volume, of CBAM-covered goods to the EU, particularly iron and steel.
Germany’s Peter Liese, ENVI coordinator for the centre-right EPP, seemed to back a potential exemption, while Dutch MEP Mohammed Chahim of the centre-left S&D and rapporteur for a CBAM proposal under negotiation, said “we have to reassess” the file’s force majeure clause.
EPP and liberal Renew MEPs agreed. A Commission official present at the hearing did not comment on the matter. Metinvest told Contexte that it wasn’t directly involved in talks with the Commission.
The EU executive said it is “aware of the concerns expressed by the Ukrainian industry over exports of steel and aluminium”, adding it was working with Kyiv to “facilitate” CBAM’s implementation.
A Commission report in December found no grounds to trigger a force majeure exemption for Ukraine.
CBAM rapporteur seeks cross-party push to widen scope of carbon border tax
Dutch S&D rapporteur Mohammed Chahim invited members of environment committee ENVI to draft joint amendments to potentially include more sectors under the CBAM tax on carbon-intensive imports.
Chahim told a 5 May ENVI hearing that amendments could be negotiated in trilogue talks with the EU Council. This comes as co-legislators debate Commission proposals to bring more steel and aluminium byproducts under CBAM.
Chahim’s draft report on the CBAM extension proposal, finalised last month, doesn’t go beyond the Commission’s proposal, which would extend CBAM to about 180 additional goods from 2028. At the hearing, MEPs from the Greens, the liberal Renew and ultraconservative ECR groups signalled support for broadening the scope.
ENVI also debated a parallel file setting up a temporary decarbonisation fund to help certain CBAM-covered sectors cope with the levy. Renew rapporteur Pascal Canfin’s pitch to tie funds more closely to actual exports was backed by S&D, Green and EPP MEPs. But a Commission official warned this could breach World Trade Organization rules.
The official also questioned Canfin’s push to open funding to downstream operators subject to CBAM but not to the ETS carbon market, saying this could limit available funds.
Austria’s Wuppermann Metalltechnik opens new tube plant
Austria-based steel producer Wuppermann Metalltechnik GmbH (WMT), a subsidiary of Germany-based Wuppermann Group, has announced that it has officially opened its new tube plant at its Altmünster site in Austria.
The new facility will expand WMT’s production capacity and significantly broaden its product range. It will produce complex special profiles with wall thicknesses of up to 4 mm, as well as tubes and profiles in an extended range of dimensions and strengths. The plant will process steel grades such as DP800, DP980 and 22MnB5, with tensile strengths of up to 1,000 MPa.
According to the company, the new plant is equipped with fully automated raw material and finished goods warehouses, together with highly digitalized logistics and production processes, ensuring high efficiency. WMT stated that the facility also includes an inline rolling stand and a tube internal scraping unit, enabling the production of premium products with tight tolerances. The company’s existing tube welding line will remain in operation and will be relocated to the new hall complex to increase efficiency.
“This significant investment by Wuppermann Group has resulted in the creation of one of the most modern tube mills in the world. It enables us to remain the quality leader for our customers, manufacture with maximum efficiency, benefit from a very high level of digitalization and automation, and safeguard European production,” Oliver Rechtsprecher, spokesman for the executive board of Wuppermann AG, stated.