European rebar prices split amid rising energy, raw materials costs
Steel rebar prices in Europe diverged in the week to Wednesday June 18, with price direction varying depending on the region, sources told Fastmarkets.
In Italy 8-16 mm B450C rebar offers were largely unchanged at €520-560 ($598-644) per tonne ex-works, with a supplier in the north of the country taking an aggressive stance and reducing offer prices to as little as €510-515 per tonne ex-works, sources said.
The other mills in the north of the country were offering rebar at €520-530 per tonne ex-works.
In southern Italy, meanwhile, rebar was available at €540-560 per tonne, according to sources.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Italy widened to €510-560 ($601-647) per tonne on Wednesday, down from €550-580 per tonne on July 4.
Suppliers tried to maintain their offer prices for Italian rebar and were unwilling to provide discounts – either in the domestic market or in deals to northern Euorpe – because of increased scrap and energy costs.
One buyer from Northern Europe, who managed to book Italian material last week at €605 per tonne delivered, said he was now “struggling to get the same level” and estimated that potential deal prices could push up to €615 per tonne delivered this week.
Rebar from suppliers in Northern Europe was available at €630-640 per tonne delivered in the week to June 18, sources said, with one citing a slight revival in business activity this week because customers were restocking ahead of the summer holidays.
“You need to be worry-free to go on holiday,” the source said.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe was €615-640 per tonne on June 18, narrowing down from €615-650 per tonne on June 11.
In Spain, Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) domestic, delivered Spain was stable at €615-620 per tonne delivered – a level regarded as acceptable my most customers.
Steel prices to rise amid CBAM implementation
Steel prices are to rise ahead of the implementation of Europe’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which will start from January 2026, panellists said at the Kallanish Europe Steel Markets conference in Amsterdam.
Panellists noted that whilst demand is currently a concern, steel prices are likely to be supported going into the third and quarter quarters with orders needing to be placed soon ahead of January delivery, when CBAM would come into force.
Jerome Waterkeyn, chief executive of Steelforce said: “The demand is one thing… We see [with] imports that’ll happen from 1 January 2026, customers start to stress that if they don’t purchase now, they will be late, and they will be charged or we will have to charge them an unknown amount.”
He added they were squeezed by multiple quotas already in place that could be full towards Q4, ahead of other quotas opening. That could mean “they will be penalised with an additional amount. It’s creating uncertainty, but it creates a revival of restocking, at least from the import side.”
“Maybe CBAM might activate the market, because demand is also very much a feeling, it is about the conviction that people have that the market may go up,” the Steelforce ceo added.
This was echoed by Julian Verden, managing director of Europe at Stemcor Group.
“The logic would suggest that people are going to try get something in just before the CBAM prices, which could cost €60/tonne” as of 1 January, he said.
Kamal Arifi, director of commercial transformation at SSAB Europe, noted that the uncertainty and challenges are supportive of prices.
“Even from some of the experts in the market, the uncertainties, the difficulties they’re facing, that obviously will support prices in a way or another,” Arifi commented.
He highlighted analyst reports foreseeing that prices in Q4 will have support from the implementation of CBAM.
Verden added that there is a “multi-priced and multi-opportunity market, all depending on what’s blocked and what isn’t blocked, and the different pricing that’s for America, for Europe, for the UK and the rest of the world.”
“I would think the implementation of CBAM is going to at least push prices up,” said Waterkeyn, who noted that “the green conversion is an enormous supportive aspect to maintain prices at higher levels.”
Waterkeyn added that Europe’s global push for a greener market via CBAM will also mean that prices will be supported in the long term.
However, Verden noted that if CBAM is taken out of the equation, “then it is possible that prices would not particularly increase.”
He added that steel prices could tick down over the next few weeks, but they would have to rise after that. He revealed that customers currently do not want to buy as they don’t see the demand, but “they get to a point in about a month’s time where it’s going to be January delivery then the price is going to be up.”
Verden estimated that, aside from green sources, CBAM could add €50/t to prices.
Arifi referenced reports by analysts who do not see a further downward trend.
“We are reaching a floor with pricing at the moment, and in Q3 and Q4 there could be an upward trend,” he said, agreeing that prices would be supported by CBAM.
Carrie Bone UK
Stegra commits to 2026 start-up
Stegra, formerly known as H2 Green Steel, says it fully intends to begin commercial production in about one year from now, according to Stephan Flapper, Stegra’s head of commercial, speaking at Kallanish Europe Steel Markets 2025 in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
The company aims to supply both green steel and green HBI as it believes that more than half of announced HBI capacity will not actually come online.
Stegra plans 21 million tonnes/year of DRI and 2.5m t/y of crude steel capacity through an EAF and slabcaster. This could then be ramped up to 5m t/y. The plant intends to produce HRC and CRC. Running on DRI and scrap, Stegra also plans to sell some HBI to regional steelmakers.
The plant in Sweden is still under construction with significant work to do. However, the company has hired a large construction team for the summer, when days are very long at the site.
“There is huge [green steel] demand coming at us,” said Flapper. This is largely because in many key manufactured products, steel accounts for a large proportion of embodied emissions but a relatively small proportion of the total cost. This means that reducing embodied emissions in steel is the most efficient and cost effective way for downstream manufacturers to decarbonise their products.
Despite this, a large number of planned DRI/HBI projects are unlikely to come to commissioning, Flapper believes. By 2030 incremental DRI/HBI demand could reach 32mt. Announced projects would more than cover this with 47m t/y of capacity planned to be commissioned. However, financing and other issues mean that Stegra expects only 21m t/y of additional capacity to actually be operating in 2030. This will be almost half of European and Middle Eastern capacity, with a small contribution from other regions.
This is one reason why Stegra is looking for growth options outside of the facility it is currently construction in Sweden.
EUROMETAL at Europe Steel Markets Conference in Amsterdam
EUROMETAL was pleased to participate in the Europe Steel Markets Conference by Kallanish Commodities in Amsterdam on 17–18 June.
President Alexander M. Julius, joined industry leaders in a key session on steel supply chain challenges, addressing regulatory pressure, trade disruptions, and the impact of CBAM on the European market.
Board members Jaap Jan Aardenburg (Tata Steel Nederland) and Julian Verden (Stemcor Global Holdings Limited) also contributed valuable insights during the discussions on market outlook, supply, demand, and pricing.
As a partner of the event, EUROMETAL reaffirmed its commitment to representing Europe’s steel distribution community at this crucial time for the industry.
ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt to implement annual scheduled repair work at BF 5A
Germany-based ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt, subsidiary of Luxembourg-headquartered global steelmaker ArcelorMittal, has announced that it will implement annual scheduled repair work on blast furnace 5A. The repair phase will begin on June 22, 2025, with a blast furnace shutdown lasting several hours. The blast furnace is expected to be restarted on June 27-28, 2025.
The company has also informed that dust and noise emissions may occur in the vicinity of the plant premises during the shutdown and startup phases of the blast furnace.
The blast furnace 5A has an annual production capacity of 1.7 million mt.
France’s Alstom chooses Outokumpu as green stainless steel supplier
Finland-based stainless steel producer Outokumpu has announced that it will supply its green stainless steel under the brand Circle Green® to France-based rolling stock manufacturer Alstom.
Starting from 2026, Alstom will receive the first deliveries of the Circle Green® stainless steel, which has a carbon footprint up to 93 percent lower than the global industry average. Consequently, Alstom will use this steel in its latest generation of Metropolis metro cars. The collaboration will help the French company to cut emissions from its goods and services by 30 percent by 2030.
Salzgitter and Volvo Cars create closed-loop partnership
Germany-based steelmaker Salzgitter Group is expanding its partnership with the Swedish automotive manufacturer Volvo Cars by establishing a closed-loop. The steelmaker, which already supplies high-quality flat steel to Volvo Cars’ body plant in Olofström, has announced that it will source significant quantities of steel scrap from the given plant in 2026 for its steelworks.
The steel scrap generated at the Olofström plant will be fed into the production of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, keeping the material in the cycle without any quality loss.
Salzgitter delivers flat steel to Sweden by train, using a single-wagon system. In the future, the steel will be delivered to Volvo Cars and will return as scrap via a direct and fast sophisticated shuttle concept with short transit times and maximum capacity utilization. Despite the approximately 700-kilometer route between the two locations, low-emission transport cycle will be created thanks to the use of powerful, interoperable locomotives that can carry high train loads and the use of 100 percent climate-neutral electricity for traction.
Increasingly ‘VUCA world’ necessitates speedier consensus on green steel definition: IIO 2025
The steelmaking industry must soon establish a consensus on its green steel definition against headwinds from a world that is increasingly characterized by its volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). This was a recurring theme with delegates during Fastmarkets’ 2025 International Iron Ore and Green Steel Summit, held June 17-19 in Barcelona.
Andreas Eichstaedt, head of research and strategy, raw materials procurement for steelmaker thyssenkrupp, said during his presentation on responding to market challenges that the steelmaking industry is at the cusp of a “mega VUCA” world, made difficult by geopolitical tensions, wars and price fluctuations.
The layered complexities of a multi-faceted world where individual market participants act on their own interests could stand in the way of converging on a common discourse, according to Paulo Carvalho, managing director at decarbonization consultancy decarbValue Limited.
Speaking at a panel on the reality of green steel in Europe, Carvalho added that the steelmaking market can draw lessons from how industry standards are delineated in parallel industries, such as hydrogen markets, whereby a global definition of green hydrogen has formed the backbone of the Green Hydrogen Standard.
Carvalho also highlighted the importance of expounding on voluntary efforts by individual participants in setting parameters, such as the launch of India’s Green Steel Taxonomy in December 2024, which categorizes green steel in terms of percentage of “greenness” of the steel below the threshold of 2.2 tonnes of CO2e (tCO2e) per tonne of finished steel, according to a release by India’s Ministry of Steel.
A trader based in Singapore who was attending the panel told Fastmarkets that there is a need for a more centralized approach in defining green steel that coalesces the opinions and requirements of vital users considering the tight timeframe for decarbonized steelmaking.
The same sentiment was echoed by José Noldin, chief executive officer of sustainable iron company GravitHY, who was also speaking at the same panel on green steel in Europe; Noldin added that the views of a microcosm of the market, which includes the buyers, sellers and a tertiary authority should form the base of discussion.
Noldin also emphasized the need for measurable parameters, such as the absolute reduction of CO2 emissions negating mass balance efforts as a “fake concept” in reducing emissions.
The reality is that in a free market world, while the widespread traction of a green steel industry is likely to fail without government support in structuring incentives and establishing deterrents, state-led efforts cannot be the end-all answer, according to Eichstaedt.
The Singapore-based trader said that the EU, with its robust regulatory framework over a more centralized steelmaking bloc, has the strongest potential in coalescing a measured approach in defining green steel in the “mega VUCA world.”
Reality of green steel in Europe: IIO 2025
Decarbonization has been in the spotlight of the European steel industry for a few years now; however, scaling up production and obtaining premiums for green steel raises tough questions about resource availability, regulations, economics and even definitions.
During Fastmarkets’ International Iron Ore & Green Steel Summit 2025, taking place June 17-19 in Barcelona, panelists — including Fernando Pessanha Santos, chief strategy officer of Hydnum Steel, Paulo Carvalho, managing director of decarbValue Limited, and Jose Noldin, chief executive officer of GravitHy — discussed the reality of the green steel market in Europe.
What does green steel actually mean in 2025?
In the past few years, European steel producers have accelerated their decarbonization efforts, and a new market for steel with a reduced carbon footprint has emerged, with all the major flat steel suppliers in Europe developing their own green steel brands — XCarb, Arvzero, SSAB Zero, Bluemint, Greentec, among others.
But there is no common standard or official definition for “green steel” as of yet.
“There is no definition so far. We’re about to produce 1.5 million tonnes [of steel] at the end of 2027 [and] beginning of 2028. And we see sustainability as a whole [concept], not only emissions [threshold]. We reuse residual ‘gray’ water to reduce fresh water consumption, we use 100% renewable energy, we use scrap, and we aim for zero emissions for the steel we produce,” Fernando Pessanha Santos said. “It’s difficult to have a definition that encompasses everything. But so far there is no consensus.”
“Green steel is a sort of ambition,” Jose Noldin said. “We have to recognize that we have far too many [different] definitions [of what green steel is]. And now we need to converge and consider the [specific carbon] footprint. The definition has to be accepted by the market, by the customers, because they dictate the rules. But one thing is clear — we should consider [green] physically reduced carbon emissions, which means that we don’t believe that [green steel] should be qualified as such via the mass balance approach… Green steel is a steel produced with minimized CO2 content. We need to agree that green steel is a steel produced with less than X kg of CO2 per 1 tonne of steel.”
“Steel is not alone in the economy, and Europe is not alone in the world. Other regions are also discussing the standards. There is no definition or other standard [in Europe],” Paulo Carvalho said. “There are standards emerging in other industries — for example for green hydrogen, renewable electricity — we can learn from these industries.”
“India has introduced its own definition for green steel and quantified the carbon emissions levels with a star rating system in December 2024. I’m not talking about the metrics of those specific thresholds [in India] at this point, but there is a definition there and that gives some clarity to market participants,” Carvalho added. “There is no widely accepted [green steel] definition yet.”
Access to raw materials
Between 40 million and 50 million tonnes of new green steelmaking capacity — using just electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) or EAFs and direct reduced iron (DRI) — is expected to come online in Europe in 2025-2030, Fastmarkets’ research team estimates.
Moving to the DRI/EAF production route, however, raises concerns in the European market, notably regarding access to raw materials — DR-grade pellets, high-quality scrap — and energy resources.
“If we look at 100 million tonnes of DRI projects announced globally, indeed we have a problem [with resource availability]. And we have to react. It’s not a top-down approach, it’s a bottom to top approach,” Noldin said. “So, in our case, at GravitHy we have already secured 50% of our feedstock with one major high-grade pellet producer — Rio Tinto. And we have positive discussions with other suppliers. There might be a scenario where there will be a shortage [of feedstock] in the future, but for the first wave of [DRI/hot briquetted iron] projects, [the shortage] should not be so dramatic.”
“When you have a shortage or scarcity of a resource, it also brings opportunity. For high-grade pellets, there is a scarcity; if there is a scarcity, there is a premium, and that’s an incentive for more capacities to come, new technologies to evolve,” Pessanha said. “And last but not least is the energy factor. Green transition is all about energy. Having access to green energy at an affordable price is a base to build green steel transformation on.”
“A few things the iron ore industry has been doing are good in terms of a solution [for the feedstock supply issue]. First of all, additional pelletizing capacity; one can only pelletize with access to high-grade iron ore — new capacities built in Algeria, in Egypt, other places… will be part of the solution to increase the availability of feedstock for DRI plants. And there is blending, of course, [the process of combining different types of iron ore to achieve a desired composition]. This could help alleviate any availability [issue] on the DR side,” Carvalho said.
Green steel demand in Europe: current situation and how it can be stimulated
One of the opportunities for steelmakers in their transition to cleaner production routes is to get premiums for decarbonized steel products.
However, the willingness to pay premiums remains relatively low across the supply chain.
Sources pointed out that for steel service centers, steel products represent nearly 100% of the cost, and paying any premium is a challenge; meanwhile, for the automotive sector, for example, the price of steel is relatively low, only “a fraction of their costs.”
“The closest you are to the end user and more premium goods or luxury products, they have a lot of willingness and for them it doesn’t impact the cost,” Pessanha said.
“We clearly see a demand from different sectors, different actors,” Noldin said.
Noldin pointed out that the lack of standards and definition of green steel is another setback for its adoption in supply chains.
“Some [customers] are a bit lost. What exactly should I buy to cope with my decarbonization objectives or to serve my end customers that are asking for green steel? So the definition, again, if it’s something that we need to converge,” he said.
“[Green steel] still remains niche product, for niche applications [where paying green premium is affordable],” Carvalho said. “The balance of supply and demand is completely different in different segments of the market.”
For example, in the long steel sector, which mainly uses the EAF route of steel production, the acceptance of premium charges by customers is more difficult when compared with flats because this method of production was already considered more ecologically sound.
Fastmarkets’ methodology defines European green long steel as “steel produced with Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions at a maximum of 0.5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel.”
Fastmarkets’ assessment for green steel, differential to steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe was €20-30 ($23-35) per tonne on Wednesday June 11, stable week on week
In sharp contrast, premiums for flat steel were a lot higher.
Fastmarkets’ methodology provides the following definition for European green flat steel: “Steel produced with Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions of maximum 0.8 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel.”
For example, Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment for green steel, domestic, flat-rolled, differential to HRC index, exw Northern Europe was €170-200 per tonne on Thursday June 12, flat week on week.
In Europe, 79% of carbon steel long products are produced via the EAF route, while 96% of flat products are produced using the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route.
Looking ahead
In recent months, the European steel sector has been facing rising production costs, increased pressure from low-cost imports from Asia and the ongoing deterioration of the steel demand-supply balance in Europe.
Apparent steel consumption in the EU amounted to 127 million tonnes in 2024, down by 2.3% from 130 million tonnes in 2023 and lower than during the 2020 pandemic year, when it stood at 129 million tonnes, data from the European steel association Eurofer shows.
And imports’ share in domestic steel consumption in Europe was estimated to be around 30% in 2024, sources told Fastmarkets at the sidelines of the event.
Amid the crisis unfolding in the European steel industry, there were concerns about decarbonization being pushed back and becoming a secondary issue.
However, panelists remained optimistic regarding the green steel transition in Europe, expecting a regulatory framework to drive the change.
“It’s a legal obligation from Europe to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. And the steel industry is a part of the solution. You cannot achieve the green new objective without decarbonizing the steel industry,” Noldin said. “I remain optimistic that we continue to decarbonize the steel industry in Europe, and this is not a risk. It’s not a threat to the European steel industry. It’s a fantastic opportunity.”
“In January 2026, the big change [Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism] is coming and it’s going to touch the most sensitive part of the human body, the pocket. [CBAM] can be a very, very important driver and catalyst, or it may accelerate the transition because it changes the market dynamics, changes pricing, changes the cost structure. A green producer will be more competitive than a gray producer within a couple of years,” Pessanha said.
HRC buyers in Europe hold back from trading; slow demand, competitive imports weigh down on expectations
European hot-rolled coil prices were broadly flat on Wednesday June 18, with downbeat sentiment weighing down on buying activity in both Northern Europe and Italy, sources told Fastmarkets.
From integrated mills, July-delivery coil was on offer in the range of €600-620 ($693-716) per tonne ex-works, while bids for such material were mainly reported lower, at €570-590 per tonne ex-works.
Mill sources estimated workable prices no lower than €600 per tonne ex-works but admitted that it was challenging to maintain this level, considering a lack of real demand and bearish buyer sentiment.
“I think it will go further down in the summer. After that, we will see a traditional rebound in the following quarter, but nothing extraordinary,” a German buyer said.
“We don’t buy [HRC] because first, we have enough stocks, and second, we expect prices to slide lower,” the buyer added.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ calculation of the daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe was €593.33 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €0.17 per tonne from €593.50 per tonne on Tuesday June 17.
The Northern European index was down by €7.50 per tonne week on week and by €45.42 per tonne month on month.
Overall, expectations regarding price trends were quite pessimistic due to both subdued consumption and seasonality factors, Fastmarkets heard.
“We will have very long summer holidays this year; the market is too weak,” a buyer in the Benelux area said.
Meanwhile, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €571.88 per tonne on Wednesday, down by €3.75 per tonne day on day.
The Italian index was down by €11.04 per tonne week on week and by €38.75 per tonne month on month.
In Italy, the HRC market was also subdued, with only scarce trading reported.
HRC from domestic producers in Italy was available at €570-585 per tonne ex-works for July delivery, sources said.
Buyers’ estimations of tradeable prices came in a wider range, at €540-570 per tonne ex-works, but the lower end was not traded, sources said.
Deals for small tonnages were reported at €560-575 per tonne ex-works earlier this week.
A European supplier reportedly sold HRC to Italy at €535 per tonne ex-works, with market sources estimating it to net back to around €580-585 per tonne delivered. The same supplier was heard selling coil to Italy at €555 per tonne ex-works during the week to Friday June 13.
Import HRC offers were stable to slightly weaker in the week to Wednesday.
Indonesian HRC was heard offered at €470-480 per tonne CFR to Italy for August shipment.
Turkish coil was said to be available at €530-540 per tonne CFR, duty paid. Some sources reported even lower prices for Turkish coil, at €520-525 per tonne CFR duty paid.