Category: Latest Updates

French rebar activity continues to be slow, with orders being carried out only back-to-back and visibility low. May was a poor month for order intake, although the distribution sector reported good shipment levels. Rebar demand from other European markets such as Germany was also subdued last month and continues to be weak.

Activity in the construction sector in France but also in Germany is stalling and hampered by low demand for private residential buildings. Buyers’ stocks continue to be reported at relatively low levels. All local long steelmakers are expected to continue to implement production cuts in June, as they did in May, to address overcapacity.

Domestic rebar prices are declining again, from the levels of €650-680/tonne ($695-727) delivered to €590-630/t delivered, depending on volume and customer, Kallanish notes.

Natalia Capra France

US trade representative Katherine Tai is requesting that the International Trade Commission conduct a survey analysing greenhouse gas emissions data gathered from the nation’s domestic steel industry. This request follows the establishment of the United States-European Union steel trade agreement in October 2021, and intends to help inform both parties about the US steel industry’s emissions intensity rates.

Tai says the emissions intensity report should be based on average emissions rates during 2022. She requests that the commission complete its analysis by the end of January 2025.

Kallanish understands that the results of the emissions intensity report will be assessed in a breakdown by category between stainless steel and carbon or other alloy steel products. Furthermore, there will be an additional breakout for data as it pertains to separate sub-categories of carbon-alloy steel; flat, pipe/tube, long and semi-finished.

The US trade ambassador requests that the report analyses Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions intensity rates for domestic steel production.

Zach Johnson USA

ArcelorMittal North America’s Dofasco facility in Hamilton, Ontario, will supply General Motors with its XCarb recycled and renewably produced (RRP) steel, which boasts reduced CO2 emissions compared to many other carbon steel products, Kallanish understands.

The company produces XCarb in its electric arc furnace (EAF) with 70-90% scrap and does not use carbon offsets. According to the ArcelorMIttal, the CO2 impact has been verified by an independent party for Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Scope 1-3 emissions. Additionally, the company shares that its steelmaking process uses renewable electricity sources.

“As a global leader in the steel industry, we are making smarter steels for people and planet, and XCarb RRP is one of the smartest steels around. It is steel with physically lower CO2 emissions, which will help drive the achievement of ArcelorMittal’s goal to be carbon neutral. We are proud to join GM in their march toward a zero emissions future,” said North American cmo of ArcelorMittal, Peter Leblanc.

The Dofasco plant is moving to direct-reduced iron (DRI) EAF steelmaking from blast furnace steelmaking. The transition is said to reduce carbon emissions by 60%.

Kristen DiLandro USA

Some apparent demand for welded tube is forecast to resurface in the second half of June as both distributors and end-users in Italy have low stocks and are expected to come back to purchasing. The European market is currently in a deadlock that started several weeks ago, market sources tell Kallanish.

Real demand is also particularly subdued. Discounts are at some 33-35 points in Italy. Values fell significantly in May, in line with dropping hot rolled coil prices. The tube price weakness is seen continuing, with discounts declining by a couple of points per week over the next few weeks.

Some sources however believe the bottom is not far off because HRC import offers seem to have stopped falling. A stabilisation in both imported and European HRC levels is expected by end-June. However, for the next two days, values for coil and its derivatives will continue to edge down, sources believe.

Some European countries, such as France and Germany, are also going through a heavy destocking phase. Sources also expect German buyers to come back to restocking by the end of the month, which should trigger a more balanced market in terms of demand and supply.

Natalia Capra France

Only hand-to-mouth trading was reported in the European hot-rolled coil market on Tuesday June 6, Fastmarkets understands, with buyers holding back in the expectation that prices will fall further as June progresses.In Northern Europe, distributors and stockholders were only purchasing small tonnages of coil to cover gaps in stocks of specific grades or sizes, sources said.

Buyers said they had enough material in stock and could therefore afford to hold back from restocking for a little longer. They added that they expected prices to hit the floor at some point in June.

“The level of stock at distributors and stockholders is still quite high, while [HRC prices] keep falling – so, not a good time for restocking,” a distributor in the region said. “Besides, negotiations with the automotive [sector] for the second-half of 2023 are still not finalized,” the source added.

Expectations regarding the price floor varied, however.

Some buyers expect HRC prices in the region to stabilize at around €650 ($695) per tonne EXW, while other suggested that €700 per tonne EXW would be the cost line for the producers.

The latest offers from integrated mills in Northern Europe came in at €720-740 per tonne EXW, for August-September delivery HRC, while Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at €721.04 ($771.56) per tonne on Tuesday, down by €2.29 per tonne from €723.33 per tonne on Monday.

The latest calculation of the Northern European index was down by €27.09 per tonne week on week and by €100.59 per tonne month on month.

Fastmarkets’ corresponding daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €667.50 per tonne on Tuesday, down by €2.50 per tonne from €670.00 per tonne on Monday.

The index was down by €13.13 per tonne week on week and by €132.50 per tonne month on month.

Buyer sources in Italy said that local mills were will to sell at €670-680 per tonne CPT, which would net back to €650-660 per tonne EXW, for July-August delivery.

A mill source reported an offer at €680 per tonne EXW, but said discounts were still possible for larger tonnages.

Transactions were, however, limited, because buyers remain unconvinced that prices have reached rock bottom yet.

Overseas suppliers, meanwhile, were resisting an further downturn in prices, sources said.

Offers from one Japanese supplier for August shipment HRC were heard at €585 per tonne CFR, while another producer from the nation was aiming for around €595-600 per tonne CFR – the same offer seen in the week to June 2.

In general, however, HRC offers from Asian mills were consolidating at around €580-590 per tonne CFR for August shipment, sources said.

Other sources, however, said that some Vietnamese mills were willing to accept €560 per tonne CFR for tonnages of 20,000 tonnes or more.

Published by: Julia Bolotova

Stellantis is partnering with scrap merchant Galloo to boost the automaker’s end-of-life Vehicle (ELVs) recycling, Kallanish notes.

The firms will create a joint venture to collect and recycle ELVs initially in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, working with selected Authorised Treatment Facilities. The new company will be operative at the end of this year, offering its services to other automakers and eventually expanding its scope to other European countries.

This will “make it easy for customers to recycle their End-of-Life Vehicles,” a joint note says. “Returning parts and materials to the value chain preserves scarce resources.” The aim of the project is to accelerate Stellantis’s circular economy.

Galloo already collaborates for ELVs collection and scrapping with Peugeot and Citroën. It recycles over 1 million tonnes/year of steel and about 60,000t of other metals.

Stellantis, whose Circular Economy Business Unit’s strategy is “reman, repair, reuse, recycle” expects a ten-fold increase in its recycling revenue and a four-fold increase in its scrapping parts revenue by 2030. The company is targeting more than €2 billion ($2.1 billion) in recycling turnover by the end of this decade.

Natalia Capra France

Italian re-roller Marcegaglia is updating its price list for stainless and specialty tube products, Kallanish learns from a company representative. The new list is being distributed to customers this week.

The company is decreasing values for some products, such as certain 316 grades, after prices reached unsustainable levels. It has also updated other grades in line with today’s stainless coil lower values.

“The new list is adapted to today’s market conditions and in line with the raw material trend,” says Marcegaglia Specialties purchasing and sales director Egidio Bini.

The new price list will be based on effective prices as the company will stop quoting base plus alloy surcharge values. Hot and cold rolled coil mills in Europe are also quoting effective prices after abandoning the old base plus alloy surcharge formula, Kallanish notes.

European stainless flat steel market deadlock deepened in May as apparent demand has been non-existent and real demand weak. Orders for coils and derivatives such as sheet and tube continue to be placed only for a few hundred tonnes, with prices plummeting across Europe. Overcapacity, lower consumption and descending prices throughout the entire value chain are causing the current low sales volumes, with buyers continuing to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

Natalia Capra France

From the perspective of Austrian observers, rebar offer prices fell dramatically further last week, more than in Germany, and in line with Italy. But there are signs of a stabilisation going forward.

With a view to Italy, one Austrian source tells of offered base prices at “little more than €300/tonne [$323] ex-works,” reported just before Italy’s public holiday on Friday. Domestic mills have been quick with catching up, with an offer sent on 1 June of €345 delivered. “This includes transport costs of easily €30 to our door,” which means the ex-works base price is relatively in line with Italian quotes.

German suppliers, too, will have to adjust their offers to account for the Italian influence, as the German home market is weakening as well. “We are negotiating with a German mill today, and they are just below €400 now,” one buyer tells Kallanish. He believes offers within Germany are still above that mark, which would nevertheless still mean a drop from the €450+ reported a week earlier.

Meanwhile, border-crossing offers from Italy to Germany will now be at under €400/t delivered, and could be a serious alternative for buyers in southern Germany, up to Hesse and Thuringia. To obtain effective prices, the conventional size extra of €265/t needs to be added to the above values.

Sources have heard of plans for closures or output reduction at Italian mills, which has also been reported from Germany. Moreover, summer vacation time is closing in, and maintenance breaks this year could come sooner and last longer. This would coincide with some improvement in Austrian construction activity, and possibly create a shortage which would stabilise prices, one source says.

Christian Koehl Germany

US-based Plug Power says it plans to build three green hydrogen production plants in Finland, unlocking 2.2 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity in the country by 2030. One will feed a green steelmaking plant, Kallanish reports.

The plants will be built in the cities of Kokkola and Kristinestad on Finland’s west coast and in Porvoo in southeast Finland. Kokkola will produce 85 short tons/day of liquid green hydrogen and up to 700,000 t/y of green ammonia and Kristinestad will get a 1 gigawatt electrolyser plant to generate green hydrogen for green steel production. Porvoo will produce up to 100 t/d of green hydrogen for local mobility and export to Europe via a pipeline. Partners include Hy2Gen and GravitHy.

“We are proud to commit our know-how and turnkey hydrogen solutions towards helping Finland deliver on its vision to become a European leader of the green hydrogen economy,” says Plug Power chief executive Andy Marsh.

The three plants will produce up to 850 st/day of green hydrogen or 2.2 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity by 2030. A final investment decision is expected in 2025-2026. The companies are currently working with numerous large investors and financial institutions to secure optimal capital arrangements and industrial partners to negotiate offtake agreements.

The plants will use Plug Power’s PEM electrolyser and liquefaction technology to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and to help decarbonise Europe. The projects will rely on Finland’s nuclear, wind and hydro power.

Gabriela Farhangi UK