The crude steel production of German mills in July 2025 was 13.7% lower than in July 2024, at 2.7 million tonnes, according to latest figures provided by steel federation Wirtschaftsvereinigung (WV) Stahl.
The year-on-year gap was similarly wide to that of June, which was minus 15.9%, Kallanish notes. The gap has widened during the year.
While WV Stahl does not give explanations, the trend suggests that the US safeguard duties policy took its share in the activity of German mills, as a similar trend has been reported in Austria (see Kallanish 28 July 2025).
Very likely, US restrictions and altered trade flows had imports to Europe take a higher market share, while export business went down.
WV noted that the picture is quite mixed when looking at the production routes. Crude steel output on the oxygen/blast furnace route in July fell by as much as 19.6% to 1.9mt, while on the EAF route, rose by 2.8%, to 821,000t. However, that increase is attributable to very low EAF production one year ago, WV Stahl explains.
Christian Koehl Germany
