Speaking of Steel – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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 MEPS’s Stainless Steel Review. 

Listen now, via YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear MEPS’s discussion about: 

• January’s soaring nickel values and their effect on stainless steel prices in the months ahead 
• Import purchases of which steel products have been rendered unviable by the EU’s emissions-based CBAM import taxes, and which remain attractive despite the added costs 
• How increased trade restrictions are reshaping steel supply chains and threatening business models 
• Whether improved demand and tighter supply might bring improved profits for steel suppliers in 2026

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 provided clarity to steel market participants. Instead, its 1,600 pages of documents left many in a continued state of uncertainty.

In the latest instalment of the Speaking of Steel podcast, MEPS’s head of price analysis and forecasts, Kaye Ayub, joins steel market analyst Jon Carruthers-Green and managing editor Tom Sharpe to discuss the repercussions of CBAM import taxes implemented from January 1.

The “counting the cost of carbon” episode of Speaking of Steel reveals:

• The cost of CBAM taxes on the EU’s most imported steel products.
• How high country-specific default emissions values have prompted mills’ race to verify their actual carbon output.
• The EU’s evolving carbon market: how CBAM costs will be influenced by the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
• Details of the CBAM methodology and how it might evolve.
• The European Commission’s role as a pioneer of emissions-based import taxes, and whether others might be encouraged to follow its lead.

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, which featured in this month’s European Steel Review. The 12-minute podcast episode – part of MEPS’s Speaking of Steel podcast series – also shares insight into the outlook for the region’s steel supply, demand and prices.

Among the topics discussed in MEPS's latest Market in Minutes podcast are:

• How the downward steel price trend was making the business climate increasingly “scary” for Southern Europe’s stockists.
• Oversupply in a context of low demand from many of the region’s steel consuming sectors.
• The weak US dollar, and how it increased competition from low-cost steel imports during the May-July period.
• Southern Europe’s steel importers now “juggling” the challenges of antidumping duties, safeguard quotas and CBAM to source material.
• Will CBAM steer Southern Europe’s steel buyers towards domestic steel procurement, supporting prices in the second half of the year, and into 2026?

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 of Steel podcast.

"Overcapacity is going to be an issue for the next five, 10, 15 years,” Carruthers-Green said in the podcast, entitled "Overcapacity risks ‘race to the bottom’ on steel prices".He added: “This is not going away quickly unless there are big announcements and what that would mean is lots of job losses and lots of plants closing down.”

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 moment, we don't find that's working”.The 12-minute “Steelmakers’ cuts fail to support North Europe prices” podcast explores the effect of revised EU import safeguard measures, US import tariffs and governments' attempts to stimulate economic growth on the region's steel prices.

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 Jon Carruthers-Green and Chris Jackson also discuss recent changes at the UK steelmaker, which came under government control in April.

In this episode of Speaking of Steel, the MEPS team discuss the developments that led to that historic move. It also considers:

• How parliament reconvened to ensure Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces kept running
• British Steel Scunthorpe’s importance to the steel supply chain in the UK and Europe
• The need for the UK government to create a new strategy to support domestic steelmaking
• Buyer sentiment in the UK steel market

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 this type of uncertainty.

“As for the outlook, we actually have prices continuing that ‘breather’ for the next couple of months, primarily just due to the uncertainty. I think that prices are going to sit in this holding pattern in May and into June. After that I think we see prices start to fall back.”

MEPS International’s latest Speaking of Steel podcast debates revisions to the European Commission's steel import safeguard measures and the further trade defence measures that might follow.

Recorded as the new rules came into force, the new episode details the changes that were implemented from April 1 and draws on MEPS’s research to consider market participants’ responses. It also considers the potential influence of further trade defence measures proposed in the Commission’s Steel and Metals Action plan.

Market analyst Jon Carruthers-Green said that certain steel supply “pinch points” could emerge as a result of the new caps applied to exporting nations’ use of the “other countries” quota category for various steel products. He said that the new restrictions on tariff-free imports had been determined by “how severely the import pressure was assessed to be”.

“For hot rolled coil, that actually has been dropped down to 13% (from 15%), but then it’s also been introduced for cold rolled coil, plate, rebar and even on some stainless products now”, said Carruthers-Green.

Fellow steel market analyst Chris Jackson said European steel buyers’ uncertainty about steel imports, which resulted from speculation about the possible changes, had not reduced following their implementation. 

He said: “Buyers were taking a step back, adopting a wait and see approach and keeping their order placement to a minimum.

“Now we’re in that post-announcement phase you’re starting to see some new trends emerge, but we’ve certainly got that feeling that imports come with an element of risk.”

Among the topics discussed in this latest episode of the Speaking of Steel podcast are:

• The European Commission’s plans for new import safeguard measures, post-2026, and a possible “melted and poured” rule for steel imports
• European steel buyers’ exploration of new import sources to avoid duties
• European steelmakers’ continued efforts to raise prices amid the perception of restricted supply

The North American steel market has been reset by the blanket reintroduction of Section 232 import tariffs, the latest MEPS podcast has heard.

Reflecting on the results of research conducted among market participants in the region, before and after the March 12 implementation of the 25% import tariff, the latest Speaking of Steel podcast suggests change has come quickly.

"We’re now seeing the reality of the situation emerge," said MEPS steel market analyst Chris Jackson.

The effect of 25% automotive import tariffs and the country-specific reciprocal tariffs announced by President Trump on April 2 were also discussed in the new Speaking of Steel  podcast. Among the other topics of the North America-focussed podcast were:

• How Section 232 speculation created supply uncertainty, accelerating  US hot rolled coil price increases
• Canadian steel producers’ exposure to the US market
• How MEPS will monitor a “decoupling” of US/Canada steel prices
• Will Section 232 tariffs “level the playing field”, presenting opportunities to some countries’ steel exporters?

European distributors have “pushed back” on domestic mills’ stainless steel price rises as weak demand continues to squeeze their profit margins, a new MEPS podcast reveals.

In this seven-minute episode from MEPS’s short ‘Market in Minutes’ podcast series steel market analyst Michelle Kirton shares insight into March’s increasingly subdued stainless steel market, which undermined mills’ attempts to realise higher prices. 

“Uncertainty was the keyword in last month’s research in almost every region we research and that’s because of the US trade tariffs,” she said.

“While this won’t directly affect all the distributors and stockists [in Europe], it will affect end-users, and if they’re producing less and buying less steel that will have a knock-on effect.”

Also discussed in this month’s Market in Minutes podcast on the European stainless steel market are:

• Distributors' and stockists' profitability at risk
• Expectations that EU safeguard measures’ quotas to fill quickly, despite recent revisions
• The effect of the European Commission’s proposed “melted and poured” rule for imports
• A price outlook for the months ahead