MEPS’s latest review brings together information on the suspension of steel production in Ukraine, the halt in hot-end operations at Acciaierie d’Italia and the idling of Stelco facilities in Ontario, Canada.
The review of changes in global steel production was prepared by MEPS’s research team based on the company’s monthly market reports. The European Steel Report, International Steel Report and Stainless Steel Report provide steel prices, market reviews and price forecasts for the next 12 months worldwide. Information about subscriptions is available from MEPS.
Europe
Acciaierie d’Italia
Following the latest court ruling, Acciaierie d’Italia suspended hot-end operations at its steelworks in Taranto.
Production was halted on October 9 after the Milan Court of Appeal rejected a second request to suspend an earlier order to close the plant. Blast Furnace No. 2 — the only one operating at the steelworks — is being kept on hot standby pending a hearing at the Court of Cassation on October 20.
The Italian government has approved measures to preserve the hot-end equipment and recently allocated a further 40.5 million euros from previously approved funding. The authorities will also supply the plant with raw materials to keep its downstream operations in Taranto and Genoa running.
HKM
HKM has permanently shut down Blast Furnace A at its steelworks in Duisburg. It had operated for more than 53 years.
Blast Furnace B will continue operating until construction of a new electric arc furnace at the Duisburg site is completed, scheduled for 2029. Pig iron output is expected to fall from around 4 million tonnes in 2025 to 3 million tonnes in 2026.
HKM’s new electric arc furnace will have capacity of up to 2.5 million tonnes per year. The company plans to reduce annual crude steel production to around 2 million tonnes.
ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal has halted steel production at the Kryvorizhstal steelworks in Ukraine following repeated Russian missile strikes.
Primary steelmaking stopped after an attack on September 14. The facility was hit again on September 21. On September 25, the company said that damage and the security situation made it impossible to resume operations for now.
In 2025, Kryvorizhstal shipped around 1.5 million tonnes of steel. No date has been set for the resumption of production.
Mergers and acquisitions
Trasteel has taken operational control of the former Liberty Magona coated steel plant in Piombino after receiving approval from the European Commission.
The Piombino site has capacity to produce around 630,000 tonnes of galvanized and painted steel per year. Output is planned to exceed 500,000 tonnes per year by the end of 2027.
Meanwhile, the deal for Acciaieria Arvedi to acquire ArcelorMittal CLN Distribuzione Italia appears to have stalled.
Arvedi withdrew its notification to the European Commission of its planned purchase of a service center with steel processing capacity approaching 1 million tonnes per year. The European Commission published a notice of the withdrawal but did not state the reason for the decision.
In Germany, CSN has begun exclusive negotiations to sell Stahlwerk Thüringen to Spanish long steel products producer Megasa. The proposed deal, valued at 550 million euros, includes a structural sections plant in Unterwellenborn with capacity of 1.1 million tonnes per year.
In addition, Klöckner & Co has agreed to sell Becker Group to a consortium of Accura Investment Partners and Becker Consult + Beteiligungs. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
Mesabi Metallics
Mesabi Metallics plans to invest 18 billion dollars in creating an integrated steel business in the United States, combining iron ore mining in Minnesota with a new steel complex in Iowa.
The company, part of India’s Essar Group, plans to invest around 15 billion dollars in the Iowa project and 3 billion dollars in developing the deposit and producing pellets in Minnesota.
The first phase of the complex will be capable of producing 7.5 million short tons of steel per year and may be completed by 2030. U.S. Senator Joni Ernst said this on September 28 at an event at the White House. Once the second phase is completed, production is expected to reach 10 million short tons per year.
The Iowa complex will use Minnesota pellets to produce steel in electric arc furnaces. Iowa authorities have already approved support measures worth up to 1.36 billion dollars, but the project still needs to secure full financing.
Trade defense measures — EU
Russian slab quota
The EU’s annual quota for imports of Russian slabs resumed on October 1, 2026, at a reduced level.
The quota for 2027 was cut by 12.5% to 2.62 million tonnes. The previous quota for 2025–2026 was fully used on April 27.
Under European Commission sanctions, the annual quota for Russian slabs will be reduced again from October 1, 2027, to 2.06 million tonnes. The exemption allowing imports within the quota will expire on September 30, 2028. After that, imports of Russian-origin slabs into the EU will cease.
Separately, the European Commission introduced provisional safeguard measures on September 25 covering imports of grain-oriented electrical steel and certain downstream products. The measures include tariff-rate quotas and minimum threshold prices and will remain in force until February 26, 2027.
Review of countervailing duties
The European Commission has launched an expiry review of countervailing measures on imports of stainless steel cold-rolled sheet and coil from India and Indonesia.
The current duties are 4.3–7.5% for Indian suppliers and 0–21.4% for Indonesian producers. The measures will remain in place while the investigation is ongoing. The review follows a separate investigation into anti-dumping duties on the same products, launched by the European Commission in September.
The Commission has also opened separate interim reviews of anti-dumping and countervailing measures on Jindal Stainless. The reviews were prompted by the merger of Jindal Stainless (Hisar) with Jindal Stainless and the subsequent acquisition of Chromeni, which is currently subject to different duty rates. The investigations will assess whether the existing measures need to be changed.
North America
Stelco
Canada’s Stelco has halted production of cold-rolled and coated products at its Hamilton Works facility in Ontario for an indefinite period.
The Hamilton site has capacity to produce around 1 million tonnes of cold-rolled products and 600,000 tonnes of coated products per year. Stelco’s parent company, Cleveland-Cliffs, said overall steel output would be maintained by concentrating production at Lake Erie Works and increasing the share of hot-rolled products.
According to Stelco, demand for cold-rolled and galvanized steel in the second quarter of 2026 was nearly 25% below the average quarterly level in 2024.
Algoma Steel
Canada’s Algoma Steel has completed electrical testing of the second electric arc furnace at its facility in Sault Ste. Marie. Production and shipments are expected to begin this quarter.
The start-up had previously been planned for the third quarter but was delayed after a turbine outage in August restricted steelmaking in the electric arc furnaces.
Once the transition to electric arc furnaces is complete, annual crude steel capacity will be around 3.7 million short tons. Carbon emissions are expected to be around 70% lower than under the previous production technology.
East Asia
Huangshi Xingang
China’s Huangshi Xingang Heavy Industry Technology has begun installing equipment at a new electric arc furnace steel plant in Hubei province.
The project is valued at 10 billion yuan. It will have annual crude steel capacity of 2.25 million tonnes. The complex will include three electric arc furnaces, a slab continuous casting machine and a 1780 mm-wide hot-rolling line with capacity of around 2.2 million tonnes per year.
Plans for the product mix changed during the project’s development: instead of plate and sections, the plant will produce coil products, including cold-rolled and coated steel.
Nippon Steel
Japan’s Nippon Steel has ordered new electric arc furnaces for its Yawata and Hirohata plants.
The Yawata furnace will have capacity of around 2 million tonnes per year, with production scheduled to start in the second half of fiscal 2029. Another, 110-tonne electric arc furnace will be installed at Hirohata to produce high-grade specialty steel.
These projects are part of Nippon Steel’s 868.7 billion yen investment program to build electric arc furnaces at Yawata, Hirohata and Shunan.
Xiamen Xiangyu
China’s state-owned Xiamen Xiangyu Group has taken control of the core stainless steel production assets of Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry following its restructuring under bankruptcy proceedings.
The deal included assets for producing nickel alloys, crude stainless steel, and hot- and cold-rolled products. In October, the former Delong facility was renamed Jiangsu Xiangyu Stainless Steel.
Delong began restructuring in 2024 due to financial difficulties. Before taking control of the company, Xiamen Xiangyu was already involved in Delong’s stainless steel supply chain and was one of its creditors.
Tisco
China’s Tisco is continuing commissioning work on a new 1780 mm-wide hot-rolling line at its steelworks in Taiyuan.
The 2.38 billion yuan project will replace the previous 1549 mm-wide line. The new line will have capacity of 4.8 million tonnes per year, including 1.35 million tonnes of stainless steel and 1.2 million tonnes of electrical steel.
The new line will operate alongside the existing 2250 mm-wide mill. It is intended to improve the efficiency of producing high-quality thin-gauge stainless and electrical steel. Commissioning was scheduled to begin in mid-October.