The monthly review of global steelmaking capacity includes key developments in Europe, East Asia and North America. Among them are plans to nationalize Speciality Steel UK in the UK, halt steel production at the ArcelorMittal site in Duisburg—Ruhrort, and develop Yongjin Technology's stainless steel project in Vietnam.
The report contains information on the state of global steel markets, price dynamics and forecasts for the next 12 months. The material is prepared based on regular reviews of the steel market and covers both standard and stainless steel.
Europe
ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal intends to close steel production and billet rolling at its Duisburg-Ruhrort plant in Germany after completing an iron supply agreement with thyssenkrupp Steel this month.
The company considered alternative sources of pig iron and investments in low-emission steelmaking, but recognized both options as economically impractical. The decision may affect about 550 of the approximately 830 employees of the company.
The Duisburg wire rod plant will continue to operate using billets from other ArcelorMittal sites and from external European suppliers. Currently, the company receives approximately 750,000 tons of liquid pig iron per year from thyssenkrupp Steel, and its crude steel production capacity is about 1 million tons per year.
thyssenkrupp Steel
Thyssenkrupp Steel has temporarily shut down blast furnace No. 2 at the Schwelgern plant in Duisburg for about six weeks for scheduled repairs. The furnace produces about 12,000 tons of pig iron per day and is considered the largest in Europe. Due to the downtime, about 500 thousand tons of liquid metal will be lost when reaching the rated capacity.
The list of works includes maintenance of cooling systems, refractory lining, gas cleaning equipment and slag granulation plant.
Separately, thyssenkrupp Steel has completed the modernization of continuous casting machine No. 4 in Duisburg. As part of the project, the former combined casting and rolling line was divided into separate production sites for the production of billets and hot-rolled products.
Speciality Steel UK
The UK government plans to nationalize Speciality Steel UK, considering that the proposed sale to a private investor will not provide sufficient long-term sustainability and will not provide the necessary price-performance ratio.
The company, formerly owned by Liberty Steel, was liquidated in August 2025. It operates sites in Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Wednesbury and provides more than 1,300 jobs. The company produces special steels for the aerospace, defense and high-tech industries.
Previously, the Norwegian Blastr Green Steel was named among the possible buyers, which, as expected,,
