Rebar prices held stable in Northwest Europe in the week to 6 June, as the market continues to be characterised by need-based trading in the context of depressed end-use sectors.
The latest Northwest European rebar prices were reported at around €630-640/t delivered by McCloskey’s sources, confirmed to be stable on week. This is in contrast to flat steel prices, which have been pressured by poor demand and the import market. Rebar prices in Spain and Italy were said to be pulling in different directions, up around €10/t on week in Spain at €620/t delivered, with Italian prices seeing an equivalent decrease.
European steel association Eurofer’s latest steel market outlook paints a grim picture for the rest of 2025, with prior expectations of a steel market recovery now delayed to 2026.
Total steel imports into the European Union have increased to a relatively high historical market share of 27% by the end of 2024, although rates did decrease by 9% in the first months of 2025. This decrease is heavily weighted toward the flat steel segment – accounting for around three quarters of total imports – due to anticipations of regulatory restrictions to import accessibility at the start of 2025. Imports of long steel actually increased 7% over the same time period.
That said, current import rebar offers to Northwest Europe are not attractive enough to incentivise purchasing sufficient volumes, said one distributor, with offers at close to parity to domestic price levels. Distributors are also unwilling to take unnecessary risks amid poor conditions in the construction industry.
While other end-use sectors have been surprisingly robust against the same factors depressing the upstream steel markets – high energy costs and supply chain disruptions – before reversing the trend in 2025, construction has been an outlier. According to Eurofer’s Steel Weighted Industrial Production index (SWIP), the construction sector has suffered a continued recession since the latter half of 2022, highly sensitive to interest rate fluctuations due to higher lead times and upfront financing costs.
As a result, positive impacts from stimulus packages for the construction industry tend to operate on a time lag, according to Eurofer’s report and historical trends. The sector is predicted to see a minor degree of recovery from next month, expected to grow around 1% in both 2025 and 2026.
Eurofer’s Construction Confidence sentiment index, reflecting industry responses up to April this year, remains on a negative trend, sustained since 2022.
Benjamin Steven
