EU measures against steel imports will not boost domestic demand much before the third quarter, says the chief financial officer of Salzgitter AG, Birgit Potrafki.
“The impact from the safeguard measures as of 1 July will not come right away,” she said during a conference call this week monitored by Kallanish. Pointing at existing inventories being at sufficient levels, she expects that “we will see the improvement at the end of the year, rather than mid-year”. There has been some increase of inventory amid higher imports frontloaded before the introduction of CBAM and the new trade measure, she added.
Her outlook for steel prices is similarly modest. She expressed disappointment that the surge in European hot-rolled coil values got stuck at around €700-710/tonne ($822-834), “and even slightly below €700”.
The company is now in negotiations with customers on long-term contracts. Potrafki gave no indication of the potential rate of increases, also because of the widely differing term periods of contracts.
However, she did say negotiations have been factored into the company’s guidance, which has been brought up since the publication of the 2025 annual results two months ago. At that time, the company predicted an Ebidta of €500-600 million for full-year 2026. On the grounds of satisfactory sales in the first fiscal quarter, this range has been lifted to €625-725m.
On the crisis in the Middle East, she noted that events have had a negative effect on the company’s international business, but are yet to slow orders from domestic customers.
Author: Christian Koehl
