Buyers remain broadly unalarmed by the potential output reductions at western European coil mills amid recent temporary stoppages.
Currently, it appears that alleged disruptions have been overcome according to official statements (see Kallanish 6 October 2026).
“They [the mills] seem to tell different things to different sides,” one German market observer believes. He notes that they do not want to let on about disruptions publicly, but to their buyers “they rather blow up small issues, to pretend that volumes could become scarce”.
Among buyers, though, “no one is really worried,” a Swiss-based trader notes. A manager of a Dutch processor concurs.
“There is still a lot of stock at service centres, and, we have enough contract volume with European mills, so no worries from my side,” he tells Kallanish. And, like many, he adds “I am more concerned about the low demand.”
A recent temporary blast furnace disruption at ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt, made public by the group, “would maybe affect automotive customers, but not us,” a buyer at an Austrian processor says. “The overall availability from the western mills is given,” he states.
The spot price of hot rolled coil is hovering around €740/tonne ex-works ($833/t), and views among buyers diverge as to whether mills will concede deals for €10/t less, or if they could bag €10/t more.
“Mills would like to go above the €750/t,” the Austrian sources says. Another buyer notes that mills do succeed in this when it comes quarterly contracts, where the level is €760/t for the first quarter 2027, he says.
