Long-term coil supply contracts in Germany have largely been closed on the upstream end, between mills on the selling side and carmakers and in-between suppliers/distributors as buyers.
Negotiations took longer than in previous years. A year ago, the first deals were closed by early December; others concluded in the course of January. This time around, no deals were reported before year-end 2025. “There were diverse reasons,” a buyer at a processor company explains. “For a long period, we had no master deal signed by mills and OEMs, plus the [targeted] price hikes did not fit the current market.”
The first signals for negotiations are traditionally given during the German sheet fairs in October, Euroblech (Hanover) or Blechexpo (Stuttgart). At Blechexpo last year, mill representatives told Kallanish they were aiming for a three-digit increase compared with the previous year’s contracts.
The was the opposite of the previous year when buyers initially demanded from mills a year-on-year discount of €100 ($117). Eventually, the agreements settled at €50-70 lower. Following the latest talks, prices were settled halfway, at an increase of between €45 and €60, mostly around €50/t, sources report.
“The mills appeared pretty coordinated with their deadlines,” a buyer at a tier supplier believes. He finds that neither side can be too happy with the outcome. The mills had their reasons for demanding a €100 hike against the background of rising costs in a market with unsatisfactory spot prices. Buyers, however, argued perspectives for demand were unclear.
Downstream, negotiations continue between the groups of buyers – the OEMs – and their tier suppliers and steel service centres.
