Navigating the steel market's new terrain: tariff impacts on global markets and US manufacturing

Chinese steelmakers exporting low-carbon emission steel products will be among key users of green ferro-alloys, mainly because of the carbon emissions reduction requirements of the end users in their export destinations, sources told Fastmarkets.

Concerns over a potential decline in investments in the decarbonization of the steel industry are growing following the confirmation that Donald Trump will soon be returning as president of the United States, sources told Fastmarkets this week.

Policymakers in Europe need to follow a “steel action plan” to a avert a crisis in steelmaking, the European steel industry association Eurofer said this week

Steelmakers that lag behind in decarbonization will be first to be phased out after green steel capacity rises to meet future demand, a senior advisor from a major Chinese steel company told delegates at the China Steel Industry Summit for 2025.

Cleveland-Cliffs expects 2025 to be a strong year for the company, citing decreasing interest rates, certainty after the US elections and an increase in manufacturing onshoring, top executives said in the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday November 5.

China’s ferro-alloy industry continues to track toward sustainable development, focusing on decarbonization as a foundation and utilizing renewable energy and advanced technologies to reduce electricity consumption, waste gas and slag.

The European Commission has committed €4.8 billion from emissions trading revenues to support 85 innovative net zero projects through its Innovation Fund, raising its total investment to €12 billion.

The Western world’s industrial strength is beginning to drop, but Jakob Stausholm, chief executive officer of Rio Tinto, said at a London Metal Exchange seminar that there was “plenty of demand to be unlocked from reindustrialization.”

Fastmarkets heard from green steel producers, buyers and stakeholders at the annual Climate Week NYC event, held from September 22 to September 29