Steel prices keep getting higher in Europe and it is about to get worse. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is increasing market tensions as supply chains are being increasingly disrupted. Rising energy prices are also playing their part.
Russia is the world’s fifth largest steel producer, Ukraine ranks fourteenth. The two countries together account for one fifth of steel imports into the European Union. Given the war between such major producers and suppliers of steel to the world, it is quite logical that the price of this industrial commodity is rapidly increasing in price on the European market.
Current situation
Prices of rolled steel in the European Union have increased by 40 percent in the last three weeks. By contrast, in China or North America, the same commodity has become more expensive by only about seven to eight percent.Â
Possible future development
“It is almost certain that price growth will continue. At least in the short term,” Kaye Ayub, an analyst at MEPS International, told Reuters. And it’s not just disruptions from the east that drive up prices. Steel produced directly in the European Union will also become more expensive and its price will continue to rise. This is due to rising energy prices, which are needed to produce steel and are not replaceable.
