Category: Latest Updates

Italian long steel producer ORI Martin invested €16.4 million ($18.6m) in research, innovation and digitalisation last year, according to its 2025 sustainability report published earlier this week.

Of this, €7.8m went to digitalisation projects, €4.8m to technological innovation and €3.8m to research and development. The money went mainly into sensors, the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence. Eight robotic systems now run across its plants, keeping workers further from hazardous areas, Kallanish notes.

The biggest industrial milestone of the year was the startup of a new electric arc furnace at Brescia. The furnace has an electromagnetic stirrer, which has cut both energy use and emissions. The Brescia plant melted around 570,000 tonnes of ferrous scrap in 2025. Some 77% of the waste it generated was recovered.

ORI Martin has also finished designing a 5MW agrivoltaic plant covering roughly eight hectares at its Ospitaletto site. All its output will be used on site, adding to rooftop solar and existing power purchase agreements.

In research, its REWhite project is looking for new uses for white slag with the Lombardy region backing the project.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validated the company’s emissions goals during the year. Product carbon footprint tracking is now broken down by steel grade under ISO 14067. ORI Martin is also one of twelve companies in Confindustria Brescia’s Green Metals project, which plans to replace fossil gas with agricultural biomethane.

The investments came in a difficult market. “2025 was a complex year for ORI Martin, marked by economic and market challenges that affected the entire steel industry,” says sustainability manager Carolina de Miranda.

Energy and raw material costs stayed high and competition remained intense, the company notes. Even so, ORI Martin generated €470m in economic value and increased headcount at Brescia and Ospitaletto to 640. The two sites make over 200 steel grades, mainly for automotive and mechanical engineering clients.

Looking ahead, the steelmaker plans to keep combining industrial competitiveness with the green transition.

De Miranda sees the SBTi approval as a key step. “The validation of our emission reduction targets by the Science Based Targets initiative is an important milestone that further strengthens the credibility and robustness of the path we have undertaken,” she adds.

En el siguiente enlace pueden ver la edición de septiembre de nuestra revista INFOACERO Septiembre 2026

Destacamos a continuación algunos de sus contenidos:

• Opinión – D. Manuel García- Junta Directiva UAHE
• Índice UAHE:  evolución precios de aprovisionamiento septiembre 24 – julio 26
• Metal:  actividad productiva y comercio exterior del metal- informe Confemetal – septiembre 2026
• Formación:  próximos cursos UAHE- Tecnología del acero, Introducción a la gestión del trabajo con Chatgpt, Excel Intermedio, Finanzas.
• Próximos Eventos:  22 Forum MagFerros (7 octubre, Castelldefels)
• Colaboración RRHH:  “Los proyectos de los Planes de Igualdad y la aventura del registro REGCON”- D. Agustín Barroso-Dtor. RRHH Grupo Hiemesa

The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has elected Geert Van Poelvoorde, Chairman of the Board of ArcelorMittal Europe Steel, as its new President, effective 1 October 2026.

He succeeds Henrik Adam, who led the association since November 2023 and is taking up the role of Director General of the World Steel Association. Peter Bernscher of Tata Steel Nederland has also been elected Vice-President of EUROFER.

On taking office, Van Poelvoorde identified stronger European markets across the steel value chain, access to export markets and competitive conditions for industrial investment as priorities.

His appointment comes amid weak demand and declining exports. According to EUROFER’s latest economic and steel market outlook, EU steel exports to third countries fell by 20% in the first half of 2026. European steel production stood at 125.8 million tonnes in 2025 and declined by a further 1% in the first five months of 2026.

Van Poelvoorde welcomed the EU’s new steel trade measure, in force since 1 July, describing it as an important foundation for addressing global overcapacity. EUROFER estimates that the measure could create conditions for the recovery of around 15 million tonnes of European steel production annually.

He also called for competitive energy costs, stronger demand for EU-made products and changes to the EU Emissions Trading System to support investment in low-carbon steelmaking.

On exports, Van Poelvoorde urged the EU to address the carbon-cost disadvantage faced by European producers in international markets. He advocated a structural solution for exports and a significantly slower phase-out of free emissions allowances until enabling conditions are in place across steel-producing regions.

Peter Brennan has been appointed Director General of UK Steel, succeeding Gareth Stace, who steps down after 12 years in the role.

Brennan previously served as UK Steel’s Director of Trade and Economic Policy. His background also includes more than a decade at S&P Global, where he held reporting and editorial positions covering steel markets, manufacturing, global trade and financial markets.

During his time at Platts, Brennan reported on the European and UK steel industries and worked on publications including Steel Business Briefing and World Steel Review. He subsequently covered global markets, macroeconomics and credit at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Announcing his appointment, Brennan described the current period as crucial for the entire steel supply chain and emphasised the need to create conditions in which both steel producers and users can thrive.

“This is a crucial time for the entire steel supply chain and we have much to do to create a viable ecosystem within which steel producers and users can thrive,” he said.

Brennan also paid tribute to Stace’s leadership and said he looked forward to working with stakeholders and the UK Steel team to address the challenges facing the industry.

Steel prices in Germany will enjoy altogether higher levels in 2027 according to Peter Fertig, MBI Research analyst, at the recent Stahltag event in Frankfurt, organised by MBI Infosource.

According to his forecasts, hot-rolled coil is likely to average at €718/tonne ($816/t) ex-works over the year, with possible highs of €780/t and lows of €660/t.

For cold-rolled coil, he assumes a base scenario of €796/t, within a wider range of between €735-835/t, Kallanish learns from Fertig’s presentation.

For HRC, the estimated values in 2027 would be €40-50/t above those of 2026. For CRC, the increase is more moderate, if compared with the average of €791/t reached until the end of August.

Reviewing the forecast made at last year’s event, Fertig noted that it had been too pessimistic, and that prices performed better than expected. The quantitative models then predicted base scenarios of €595/t for HRC, and €680/t for CRC.

This applies also to the long product groups with rebar and wire rod, which turned out higher than anticipated, by some €20/t for rebar, and some €40/t for wire rod. For 2027, the base scenario foresees €678/t ex-works for rebar, with a worst-case scenario of €630/t, and a best-case scenario of €715/t. For wire rod, the range lies between €725-810/t, with €777/t assumed as the most likely base scenario.

Fertig noted that he had to adjust his mathematical models recently due the distortion brought by factors like the new trade measures and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

“We expect that prices will be nearer to the best-case than the worst-case scenario,” he said.

Author: Christian Koehl

kallanish.com

Austrian energy company Verbund and steelmaker voestalpine are strengthening their strategic partnership focusing on industrial energy supply and transformation.

They have signed an extended framework agreement which reaffirms their shared goal of actively driving forward the transformation of industry and energy systems, Kallanish hears from Verbund.

The new agreement forms the basis for implementing specific projects and for collaboration in the areas of renewable energy supply and hydrogen, it says.

These include site-specific projects for the use of renewable energy, as well as solutions for hydrogen, energy storage and flexibility marketing. Different supply concepts are being pursued depending on the site and the initial technical situation.

In in the areas of flexibility and energy storage, the implementation of battery storage projects at the Kindberg and Donawitz sites is being assessed.

In addition, the Austrian companies will look into further potential at locations in Germany. Battery storage facilities make an important contribution to the integration of renewable energy, increase flexibility in the energy system, and strengthen the security of supply for industrial processes, Verbund notes.

The partners also plan to explore other opportunities for expanding renewable energy generation at suitable sites. In recent years, they have jointly installed photovoltaic systems, including those at voestalpine Tubulars’ Donawitz site and at voestalpine Wire Rod. In addition, further opportunities for expanding renewable energy generation are being considered, such as long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy.

The framework agreement runs until the end of 2029 and establishes a binding framework for the joint development and implementation of forward-looking projects, Verbund says.

Author: Christian Koehl

kallanish.com

ArcelorMittal has won a contract to supply low-carbon emissions steel to the Monnaie de Paris, the French institution that produces France’s euro coins for the French and European Central Banks. The supply will include the production of €1 ($1.14), 2 and 5 cent coins, marking the first time reduced emissions steel will be used in euro cent coin production, Kallanish notes.

The steelmaker will supply XCarb recycled and renewably produced cold-rolled steel, made by ArcelorMittal Europe Flat Products and processed at its service centre in Ottmarsheim, France, where slitting operations are carried out to meet the specific requirements of coin manufacturing.

Monnaie de Paris will purchase 800 tonnes of the low-carbon emissions steel annually. XCarb steel generates up to 68% less CO2 than conventional blast furnace steel, with a carbon footprint of around 800 kg CO2e/tonne compared to approximately 2,500 kg CO2e/t for traditionally produced steel.

In a joint note obtained by Kallanish, procurement director at Monnaie de Paris Aïcha Nowak says the partnership perfectly supports its Ambition 2027 strategy in which the energy transition and the reduction of its carbon footprint play a central role.

“We are taking another concrete step towards our objective of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% while supporting a more circular approach to coin production.”

The partnership is the result of nearly a decade of technical collaboration between the two companies.

Author: Natalia Capra

kallanish.com

ArcelorMittal de España will halt steel production at its Gijón plant in Spain for one week in response to current demand levels, a company spokesperson told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, on Sept. 29.

The halt began Sept. 28 and will continue through Oct. 3, citing the steel wire order book, the spokesperson said. It is one of several short production halts — typically lasting about a week — that the plant has undertaken in 2026, they added.

The 1.1 million metric ton/year site had one of its two blast furnaces, Furnace B, offline for about four months during the first half of the year to address a production issue that emerged following maintenance in 2025.

ArcelorMittal confirmed Sept. 29 that it expects to bring a new 1.1 million mt/year electric arc furnace online at Gijón in 2026. The furnace will supply two long products rolling mills and use direct-reduced iron, hot-briquetted iron and scrap as feedstocks.

Spain’s steel industry association Unesid, which represents ArcelorMittal and the country’s other leading steel producers, said Sept. 22 that the industry was facing increasing energy-cost pressures through the remainder of the year.

From September through December, the industry faces “excessive costs” of €452 million ($513 million), following €206 million in accumulated costs from January through August, Unesid said. The costs have been exacerbated by a €20/megawatt-hour impact from grid-balancing charges.

“Cost pressures are already impacting business activity,” the association said. “Companies are halting production during peak electricity-price hours — a practice that could become more widespread if current price levels persist.”

Unesid called for immediate intervention, including increasing the 2026 allocation for compensation for indirect CO₂ costs to the €1-billion maximum permitted under European regulations. The measure would help “sustain industrial activity in 2026 and provide certainty on energy conditions for 2027,” it said.

Platts assessed imported hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe at €585/mt CIF Antwerp, and in Southern Europe at €580/mt CIF, both steady day over day.

Author: Euan Sadden, Gianluca Baratti

spglobal.com

The EU must boost crude steel production 12%-13% by 2027 to counter falling imports triggered by steel safeguards and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, but meeting this target and rolling out new electric arc furnaces will require an additional 8 million-11 million metric tons of steel scrap later this decade, Stanislav Zinchenko, CEO of Kyiv-based think tank GMK Center, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

The EU was importing 7 million mt/year of long rolled steel before, with half of that tonnage produced via the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace steelmaking route. Now, because of the safeguards and CBAM, this volume is likely to be replaced by EU-based scrap-intensive EAF production, he said.

To replace the expected decline in steel imports, the required 12%-13% growth by 2027 in EU crude steel production, from 2025 levels, will need an extra 4 million-6 million mt of steel scrap. Then, by 2028, the commissioning of new EAFs could further boost domestic scrap demand by 4 million-5 million mt, according to Zinchenko.

Key already-announced EAF projects represent significant new capacity, he said. They include Metinvest’s 2.7 million mt greenfield plant in Piombino, Italy; Voestalpine’s 2.5 million mt projects in Linz and Donawitz, Austria; Marcegaglia’s 2.1 million mt unit in Fos-sur-Mer, France; ArcelorMittal’s 2 million mt EAF in Dunkirk, France; and NLMK’s developments in Verona (+0.5 million mt) and Belgium.

These are set to be predominantly scrap-fed facilities — at least during the initial years, until there is sufficient cheap supply of direct reduced iron/hot briquetted iron on the EU market, Zinchenko said, adding that together the projects will generate an additional annual demand of up to 5 million mt of scrap once operational.

“We are seeing a clear, pragmatic trend in which steelmakers are prioritizing scrap-based EAF capacity additions over capital-intensive DRI-hydrogen concepts,” he said.

However, Zinchenko’s scrap consumption forecast is still based on a mix of scrap with DRI/HBI and assumes non-maximum capacity utilization, as the new EAFs’ future run rates are currently unknown. As for the mix composition, it will depend on market prices of several metallic feedstocks and could vary from quarter to quarter.

Higher future demand should uphold domestic European prices of scrap and potentially boost its collection, Zinchenko said, but from today’s viewpoint, meeting inflated requirements with local supply poses a challenge, as the EU continues to lose a double-digit stream of scrap through exports, net exporting 11.5 million mt to third countries in 2025 alone.

In 2027, the situation could change, though. The European Commission is looking to reduce EU annual exports of steel scrap by 4 million-4.1 million mt, or 25%-26%, from 2025 levels, having proposed cutting off the majority of non-OECD countries from EU scrap metal supplies as of May 21, 2027. On Sept. 18, the commission presented a respective draft delegated act under the revised Waste Shipment Regulation.

Author: Katya Bouckley

spglobal.com

The European Commission has announced that it has initiated an expiry review of the anti-subsidy measures applicable to imports of cold rolled stainless steel sheets and coils originating in India and Indonesia.

The review will examine whether allowing the measures to expire would be likely to result in a continuation or recurrence of subsidization and injury to the EU industry. The review will cover the period between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, and will be completed within 12 months.

Recently, the commission also initiated an expiry review of the antidumping duties on imports of cold rolled stainless steel sheets and coils from India and Indonesia, as SteelOrbis previously reported.

The current countervailing duties on the given products are at 4.3 percent and 7.5 percent for India, while duties are at zero percent, 13.5 percent and 21.4 percent for Indonesia.

The products subject to the review currently fall under Customs Tariff Statistics Position Numbers 7219 31 00, 7219 32 10, 7219 32 90, 7219 33 10, 7219 33 90, 7219 34 10, 7219 34 90, 7219 35 10, 7219 35 90, 7219 90 20, 7219 90 80, 7220 20 21, 7220 20 29, 7220 20 41, 7220 20 49, 7220 20 81, 7220 20 89, 7220 90 20 and 7220 90 80.

Meanwhile, the expiry review comes alongside two separate proceedings launched by the Commission concerning Indian cold rolled stainless steel sheets and coils. The Commission has opened interim reviews addressing the antidumping and anti-subsidy measures separately.

Author: SteelOrbis Editorial Team

steelorbis.com