Speaking of Steel

Stringent new quotas have increased the risk of exposure to elevated steel import tariffs, making overseas procurement a “high stakes gamble” for buyers in the EU and United Kingdom, a new MEPS podcast concludes.   The new episode, featuring insight from steel market analysts Jon Carruthers-Green, Adam Crookes and Benedicte Mikolajczak and hosted by MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe, covers the foll...

Not all large global steelmakers have leveraged high steel prices to return strong profits during the first quarter of 2026, research conducted for MEPS’s latest Speaking of Steel podcast revealed.   MEPS’s head of price analysis and forecasts, Kaye Ayub, joined steel market analyst Laura Hodges and managing editor Tom Sharpe to explore the profitability of the largest steel producers in the Unite...

MEPS’s new Market in Minutes podcast revealed that an uptick in domestic stainless steel procurement, driven by tightening trade defences, could be starting to slow across Europe. Stainless steel market analyst Michelle Kirton delivers a 15-minute overview of Europe’s stainless steel market in conversation with MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe in the latest edition of the monthly podcast. MEPS’s ne...

Nordic steel prices are being supported by anticipated supply constraints and rising costs, MEPS’s latest Market in Minutes podcast reveals. Steel market analyst Adam Crookes joined MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe to provide an 11-minute overview of the steel markets in Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the new episode.   Crookes said that steel demand had failed to live up to expectations du...

Representatives from UK Steel and the Independent Steel Trade Association (ISTA) debated the possible repercussions of proposed steel import restrictions in the latest edition of MEPS’s Speaking of Steel podcast. ISTA president Godfrey Watt told MEPS that the Department for Business and Trade’s proposed July 1 cuts to tariff-free steel import quotas had provoked a “massive reaction” from steel tra...

MEPS’s new Speaking of Steel podcast debates whether demand from the United States construction sector will support surging long product prices during 2026.  Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting at Dodge Construction Network, joins MEPS US steel market analysts Laura Hodges and Gary Sanders for the debate. The podcast episode, hosted by MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe, can be accessed v...

Insight shared in MEPS’s new Market in Minutes podcast reveals that the UK steel market is at a crossroads, with tightening supply and rising prices expected in the months ahead.  Research conducted for MEPS’s  European Steel Review  found that anticipation of amendments to the United Kingdom’s steel import quotas and tariffs had prompted a significant rise in coil values during March. A new quota...

The US Supreme Court's move to quash the Trump administration’s “reciprocal” import tariffs left the 50% Section 232 tariffs on steel intact, but its effects could be far-reaching, a new MEPS podcast concludes.  Steel market analyst Laura Hodges and Jon Carruthers-Green join MEPS’s managing editor Tom Sharpe to discuss the future of US tariffs in the latest 30-minute episode of the Speaking of Ste...

A “disconnect” between Central Europe’s buoyant GDP growth forecasts and the reality of economic activity means that the region’s steel demand remains modest, MEPS’s latest Market in Minutes podcast reveals. Although the OECD forecasts that Poland will top the EU’s 2026 GDP growth ranking with an uptick of 3.4%, with Czechia’s 2% forecast also well above the eurozone average, there is little optim...

Southern Europe’s hot rolled coil values have risen by around EUR100 per tonne in seven months as buyers’ shifting supply options set a new price trend, MEPS’s latest Market in Minutes podcast reveals.  Market analyst Benedicte Mikolajczak draws on research conducted for MEPS’s European Steel Review to share insight on recent developments in the Italian and Spanish steel markets. She reveals that,...

The 45-minute discussion explores the key factors influencing steel demand, supply and prices across Europe, the United States and Asia at the start of 2026 and considers how they will shape the year ahead.  MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe is joined by head of price analysis and forecasts Kaye Ayub and steel market analyst Michelle Kirton for the discussion, which draws from research conducted for...

CBAM was described as “the opportunity EU steel mills have been crying out for” as MEPS panellists discussed the added cost of newly introduced emissions-based import taxes in the latest Speaking of Steel podcast. The European Commission’s December publication of the EU emissions benchmarks and country-specific default emissions values that are central to the calculation of CBAM taxes should have...

Panellists on MEPS’s latest Speaking of Steel podcast have described how 2025’s top steel industry trends created a trading climate “defined by uncertainty” for many steel buyers.  MEPS’s head of price analysis and forecasts Kaye Ayub, head of research Stuart Gray and steel market analyst Jon Carruthers-Green join managing editor Tom Sharpe for the 45-minute long 2025 steel market review episode,...

Supply constraints resulting from the United States’ Section 232 import tariffs are providing support for long steel product prices, MEPS’s latest Market in Minutes podcast reveals.   US steel market analyst Laura Hodges joins managing editor Tom Sharpe in this 15-minute episode of Market in Minutes, which is part of MEPS’s Speaking of Steel podcast series.   Listen now via Spotify, YouTube and Ap...

Steel market analyst Jon Carruthers-Green sets out the key features of the new proposals in the 20-minute episode offering insight into how the new trade defence mechanism is likely affect steel supply, demand and prices. In conversation with MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe, Carruthers-Green also: Discusses the likely changes to the EU's tariff-rate quotas, detailing potential winners and losers....

MEPS's new Market in Minutes podcast explores how challenges faced by Europe’s steelmakers and automotive manufacturers will raise the stakes in annual steel contract price negotiations between the two sectors in the coming months.  The latest episode sees Professor David Bailey, professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham’s Birmingham Business School, Jato Dynamics global...

Investment in Central Europe’s defence, energy and automotive sectors is unlikely to significantly increase prices in steel’s spot market, MEPS’s latest Market in Minutes podcast reveals. MEPS’s International Steel Review reported that recent GDP forecasts positioned Poland as the EU’s fastest growing economy. However, research lead Chris Jackson says that any recovery in steel prices is likely to...

Steel market analysts Adam Crookes and Jon Carruthers-Green joined MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe to reflect on key industry topics that will be discussed at the annual event, held at the NEC Birmingham, on September 10-11, in the latest episode of MEPS’s Speaking of Steel podcast.  The 20-minute episode is available via YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts and covers:  Sentiment in a challenging...

MEPS International’s latest Market in Minutes podcast heard that steel demand was “nowhere near” US market participants’ earlier expectations, during August. US steel market analyst, Laura Hodges, drew on research conducted for MEPS’s International Steel Review to summarise the nation’s steel market, its key price trends and outlook in the new 12-minute episode. Hodges said that steel supply was p...

Cost-conscious steel buyers will not pay more for low-emissions green steel at a time when many industry sectors remain in slowdown, MEPS International’s latest podcast heard. The new ‘Green Steel Survey Special’ episode of the Speaking of Steel podcast explores feedback from stockists and buyers from across the world who were asked to define their participation in the market for low-emissions ste...

MEPS International’s latest Market in Minutes podcast explores the reasons why Southern Europe’s steel prices continued their recent decline in June, and how the trend is making the market increasingly "scary" for stockists. Steel market analyst Benedicte Mikolajczak joined MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe to reflect on her research among steel market participants in Italy and Spain, whic...

Overcapacity will continue to apply downward pressure to global steel prices regardless of stringent US import tariffs, trade defence measures or steelmakers’ production cuts, according to a new MEPS podcast. Head of prices and forecasts, Kaye Ayub, data lead Ewan Gilfillan and steel market analyst Jon Carruthers-Green join MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe for the latest instalment of the Speaking...

Steelmakers’ production cuts are failing to support sales prices in Northern Europe amid weak demand and plentiful supply, according to insight shared in a new MEPS podcast episode. In the latest instalment from MEPS’s Market in Minutes series, steel market analyst Stuart Gray said that producers were attempting to achieve “equilibrium” between supply and demand in the region, but added: “At the m...

UK Steel director general Gareth Stace says that government must create a “competitive business environment” for domestic steelmakers after it stepped in to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe operations. Stace is interviewed by MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe as part of this episode of the Speaking of Steel podcast, entitled ‘Can British Steel succeed in tough UK market?’.  MEPS steel market analysts...

The United States’ recent surge in steel prices has stalled as many businesses feel “paralysed” by uncertainty about import tariffs, according to MEPS’s new podcast. Speaking to MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe in a short-form Market in Minutes episode of the Speaking of Steel podcast, US steel market analyst Laura Hodges said: “I hate to say the word paralysed, but companies cannot plan ahead with...