Premiums for green flat steel were holding stable across Europe, trending below official offers amid weak demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday August 28.
Buying interest for green steel remained niche and regionalized across Europe, sources said.
“Customers are focused on broader problems, such as low steel demand, US tariffs and regulatory changes impacting import flows into Europe [new safeguards and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism],” one major distributor said.
Nordic countries remained leaders in green steel purchases, with one supplier pointing out that they were selling “up to 90%” of their green steel products to Nordics.
Another supplier said that they were selling small tonnages of green steel quite regularly to the Nordic countries as well.
“Buyers in the Nordic countries are generally more willing to purchase green steel. They know they can pass the additional cost on to the end customer, as many public projects in this region now require the use of green steel,” a mill source said.
Fastmarkets’ methodology defines European green flat steel as “steel produced with Scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions at a maximum of 0.8 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel.”
Premiums for such steel were set at minimum price of €200 ($233) per tonne among European mills.
Buyers estimated achievable prices much lower, at €100-130 per tonne, adding that mills were willing to grant discounts for volumes above 2,000 tonnes.
Suppliers estimated achievable prices higher, at €150-170 per tonne.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ assessment of the green steel domestic, flat-rolled, differential to HRC index, exw Northern Europe was €120-170 per tonne on Thursday, unchanged week on week.
Fastmarkets’ assessment of the flat steel reduced carbon emissions differential, exw Northern Europe was also unchanged week on week at €40-60 per tonne on Thursday.
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 indicated at €60-70 per tonne during the assessment week.
Buyers’ estimates of tradable prices were around €20-50 per tonne, with most of the estimations coming in the range of €40-50 per tonne.
