European heavy plate round-up: European plate prices up on CBAM, higher slab costs

European heavy plate prices increased further in the week to 23 January due to effect of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on costs, higher slab prices and seasonal demand recovery. 

Italian re-rollers have been selling s275jr heavy plate at EUR700-730/t ex-works to spot buyers. Offers have been reported at EUR750/t ex-works with some transactions settled at this level with projects. European re-rollers have been offering March shipment plate.

German steelmakers have been firm in their s235jr material offers at EUR750-760/t ex-works. One of the country’s mills has been giving discounts of around EUR20-30/t to special customers, but this had little impact on the market as lower prices were not available to the larger pool of buyers.

A re-roller from the Czech Republic has been offering s235jr plate at EUR720-730/t ex-works.

Offers of s355jr plate from Italy to Germany were reported at EUR780-790/t delivered, and from German mills at EUR800/t delivered.

The introduction of CBAM at the start of the year has made buyers more cautious in their import purchases, often pushing them towards the domestic suppliers due to risks related to the CBAM duties. And while this has helped the domestic plate price recovery, the regulation has also increased production costs for re-rollers, traditionally relying on imported feedstock.

As the actual emissions in slab imports arriving in 2026 and, consequently, CBAM duties will not be certified until 2027, re-rollers have been estimating the duties at around EUR60-80/t. But until exporters obtain the certifications, European re-rollers risk that the duties would be calculated based on default values resulting in substantially higher costs.

Slab exporters from Asia, however, pushed slab offers higher citing good order books and reassuring European buyers that they will get required verifications in time to reduce the CBAM duties. Offers of slab from China and Vietnam have been reported at $530-560/t CFR for April shipment, up from the December deals settled at around $510/t CFR.

The slab costs rise offset the effects the plate price rise had on margins. Market sources said that current plate prices for re-rollers is already close to breakeven with the costs.

“The re-rollers need higher prices as slab prices moved up and with CBAM costs on top the EUR700/t ex-works the prices barely cover the costs,” a mill source said.