CSN Lusosider confirms EU HRC supply challenges

The tight availability of hot rolled coil and other coil products in Europe has affected most market players in recent months. Brazil’s CSN also recently confirmed that its rolling mill in Portugal, Lusosider, is facing challenges in finding HRC feedstock supply.

In an interview published in the Brazilian press, Luz Fernando Martinez, commercial director of CSN, noted that the group is supplying Lusosider with coil from Brazil. It is thereby paying a duty of €53/tonne ($64) due to the existing measure on Brazilian HRC imports imposed by the European Commission.

Other coil rolling mills, such as Liberty’s units in Luxembourg and Italy, as well as those of NLMK in Belgium have confirmed difficulties in finding supplies during the last weeks, Kallanish notes.

Lusosider produces cold rolled coil and hot-dip galvanized coil for the Iberian Peninsula market. According to the latest results from CSN, the company sold 94,000 tonnes of finished products in the third quarter, up 26,000t on-quarter 23,000t on-year.

CSN has been trying to sell the Portuguese unit for some years now, but no advance in the negotiations has been reported recently.