19 December 2025 – Stainless steel producers in Southern Europe are already fully booked in December well into spring 2026. Taiwanese and Indonesian stainless steel producers want to raise prices. SHFE nickel jumps upward. EU Commission makes it clear: there will be no exemptions under CBAM.
EU Stainless Steel: Prices Rise, Lead Times Get Longer
As early as Tuesday, we reported on price increases for stainless steel in the European Union-driven by the CO2 tax CBAM starting on 1 January 2026 and the planned introduction of a successor to the EU safeguard measures from 1 July 2026.
This has led to increased demand for stainless steel produced in Europe, and significantly longer delivery times for stainless steel are now being reported, particularly from southern parts of the EU. Due to limited domestic production capacities, producers there are reportedly already fully booked until April 2026.
Taiwanese Stainless Steel Producers Attempt to Raise Prices
In recent days, Taiwanese stainless steel producers have attempted to push through price increases toward Europe. This is likely mainly due to the fact that they sense an opportunity and want a share of the pie, while at the same time having completely misjudged new measures such as EU CBAM.
Indonesian Producers also Raising Prices
Indonesian producers have also recently attempted to announce price increases, as Chinese steel may only be exported with an export licence from January 2026 onward. Should these measures actually take effect successfully, further price increases could occur from January onward.
SHFE Nickel Jumps Upward
Nickel contracts on the Asian SHFE jumped upward today, gaining more than 3%. Nickel prices on the European LME also rose at the start of trading, standing at more than 1.5% higher. Nickel prices had already risen yesterday.
CBAM: Commission Makes Clear There Will Be No Exemptions
The EU and India have been negotiating a joint free trade agreement for some time. One issue that repeatedly arises, and where India in particular has repeatedly demanded an exemption, is the EU CO2 tax CBAM.
Commission Already Rejected Indian Demands in November
Back in November, the European Commission made it clear that it was not considering an exemption from CBAM for India. A look at the recently published provisional CBAM default values also shows why – even if an exemption were theoretically possible, the EU could not politically sell it domestically: India’s CO2 emissions, particularly in steel production, are simply far too high.
Commissioner Hoekstra: “We’re not exempting anyone…”
Wopke Hoekstra, European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, said yesterday, among other things, “We’re not exempting anyone…“, while leaving open-for example with regard to the United Kingdom-the option that an exemption could become possible if both emissions trading systems were fully linked.
This makes the EU’s position toward India in this matter unequivocally clear: there will be no exemption from CBAM, and the issue should therefore be considered definitively off the table.
India Has Repeatedly Been Rebuffed on Trade Issues
In recent years, India has repeatedly raised similar demands with its trading partners (for example regarding U.S. Section 232 steel tariffs), but has not been able to achieve any substantive successes. Public portrayals of these issues have often diverged from the actual outcomes – either because the issue was not fully understood or because the lack of success was simply not something one wanted to officially acknowledge.
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