European green flat steel premiums hold steady; Nordic countries drive demand
Fastmarkets’ methodology defines European green steel as “steel produced with Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions at a maximum of 0.8 tonne of CO2 per tonne of steel.”
During the assessment week, leading European suppliers maintained the premiums for such steel at €200-350 ($206-361) per tonne.
These offers have been broadly stable during the course of 2024, but tradable values for the spot market were lower, sources said.
“When it comes to deals, especially for bigger tonnages, some discounts can be achieved – depending on supplier,” a buyer in Germany said.
Buyer sources estimated achievable premiums for green steel with such levels of emissions to be at €80-150 per tonne, but the lower end of that range was not considered to be workable by mill sources – at least for the mentioned specifications.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment of the green steel domestic, flat-rolled, differential to HRC index, exw Northern Europe, was €100-200 per tonne on Thursday, stable since December 12, 2024.
Market participants said there is a lack of projects across Europe requiring green steel and that demand from the key consumer – the automotive industry – has recently been slowing, in line with the general downturn in steel sales.
Consequently, demand for such steel remained subdued and highly regionalized, sources said, with Nordic countries deemed “champions” in green steel procurement.
“In Scandinavia there are many public projects requiring green steel procurement. There is an actual market for green steel,” a mill source in Europe said.
“So distributors and trading companies there are more keen to buy green; they know they can pass these costs [of green steel] down to the end user,” the mill source added.
Two other supplier sources echoed that view, and told Fastmarkets that they were selling most of their volumes of steel with reduced carbon footprint in the Nordic states.
A deal for 17,000-18,000 tonnes of green heavy plate, produced via electric-arc furnace (EAF), with cardon emissions content below 1 tonne of CO2 per tonne of steel, was reported from Bulgaria to Denmark in late December.
The premium for such steel was reported to be €150 per tonne.
