The European market for steel produced with reduced carbon emission content was quiet during the week to Thursday February 26, with only sporadic trades reported recently, sources told Fastmarkets.
At the same time, end-users were seeking long-term supply agreements and future green-steel projects continued to secure additional state funding, Fastmarkets heard.
Across Europe, appetite for low-emission steel remained subdued amid limited engagement from steel service centers.
“Spot sales [of green steel] are close to nil, but for long-term contracts we have more interest,” a seller source told Fastmarkets.
One European steelmaker said that demand for green steel from the distribution chain remained limited, adding that end users need to encourage customers to prioritize green steel.
Fastmarkets’ methodology defines European green steel as steel produced with Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions at a maximum of 0.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per tonne of steel.
During the assessed week, leading European suppliers maintained premiums for such steel at €200-300 ($236-354) per tonne, but admitted that such prices were rarely achieved in transactions.
Buyer sources estimated achievable premiums for green steel with such emission levels at €70-150 per tonne, claiming that producers were prepared to negotiate further on larger volumes to stimulate purchasing.
But mill sources claimed that €150 per tonne was “the minimum premium for steel produced with such emissions, considering its limited availability.”
Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment of the green-steel domestic, flat-rolled differential to the hot-rolled coil index, exw Northern Europe was unchanged at €100-150 per tonne on Thursday.
Fastmarkets’ assessment of the flat-steel reduced-carbon-emissions differential, exw Northern Europe was €0-50 per tonne on Thursday, also stable week on week.
For steel produced in blast furnaces with reduced carbon emissions of 1.4-1.8 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel, offers for premiums were reported at €70-80 per tonne.
Estimates of achievable premiums came in at €0-50 per tonne.
Wider market updates
Market participants are also awaiting policy clarity at the EU level. The European Commission postponed the announcement of the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) to March 4 from the previously expected February 26 amid reported disagreements over local-content requirements and geographic scope.
The IAA is a long-anticipated policy initiative expected to support Europe’s decarbonization efforts and could provide a demand boost for green steel, Fastmarkets reported previously.
While broader demand for low-emission steel has been limited, some major end users were moving to secure volumes through long-term agreements. For example, German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp Steel agreed to supply its CO2 reduced bluemint recycled steel for series production of the BMW iX3 from 2026, including for outer body panels and battery housings, according to a February 23 statement.
The move highlights how automakers seeking green steel were prioritizing long-term contracts with producers even while spot activity remained thin.
Under the agreement, bluemint recycled steel – a mass-balanced product with a high share of recycled content – will be supplied as part of Thyssenkrupp’s broader transition toward carbon-neutral steelmaking.
The company plans to gradually replace coal-based production with a hydrogen-capable direct-reduction plant expected to produce up to 2.5 million tonnes per year of direct-reduced iron, which could cut CO2 emissions by up to 3.5 million tpy.
Thyssenkrupp aims to switch all production to climate-neutral bluemint steel by 2045 at the latest.
Meanwhile, German steelmaker Salzgitter AG secured additional public funding for its SALCOS decarbonization project. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy approved an increase of about €322 million in funding following European Commission approval under state-aid rules on February 6, according to a February 23 release.
The new allocation supplements the roughly €1 billion in state aid approved in 2022, financed 70% by the German federal government and 30% by the state of Lower Saxony.
Salzgitter will invest about €2.3 billion in the first phase of SALCOS, which aims to convert its flagship Salzgitter Flachstahl integrated steelworks to low-CO2 crude-steel production through the installation of an electrolyzer, a hydrogen-based direct-reduction (DRI) plant and an electric-arc furnace (EAF).
The company said previously the project could eliminate up to 95% of the site’s annual CO2 emissions, or about 8 million tonnes.
But in September 2025, Salzgitter delayed parts of the project amid weak market fundamentals and regulatory uncertainty, Fastmarkets reported at the time.
