27 June 2026 – The myth of crisis-ridden steel makers in Europe is increasingly falling apart. The latest figures from steel lobbyists for 2024 show that turnovers have once again risen significantly and have now reached their highest level ever. Raw material prices in Asia and Europe are rising steadily.
Raw material prices continue to trend steadily
Prices for base metals in Asia remained stable and showed gains again today, Friday. Aluminium futures rose between 1 and 1.3% on the SHFE. Copper improved by up to 1.5%. And zinc by around 1%. The price of nickel rose by half a percent. SHFE futures for stainless steel also performed well on Friday, with the SHFE SS2509 contract rising by 1.0% compared to the previous week.
LME started trading on a positive note
The European commodity exchange LME started trading on a positive note and moved mostly sideways. The LME’s aluminium stocks, which are currently being closely monitored, fell again on Thursday. It is estimated that there are currently just under 116,000 tonnes of non-Russian aluminium left in LME warehouses.
EU steel makers report highest turnovers in decades
European steel makers continue to point to their declining crude steel production as evidence of their industry being in a serious crisis.
The fact that the figures from the in-house steel makers’ association EUROFER completely contradict this steel crisis means that this artificially created crisis can really only be seen as an absurd joke.
Without losing sight of the general approach of the steel lobby specialists, let’s take a simplified look at the year 2024, whose figures were recently published by the association.
EU steel makers have increased turnovers by over 65% since 2022
Average turnovers in 2024 were 215 billion euros, with production at 146 million tonnes per year. In 2023, average turnover was still €191 billion, compared to production of 140 million tonnes. This means that EU steel mills were able to increase their turnover per tonne of steel by more than 8%. Compared to 2022, the turnover of domestic steel mills in 2024 was even more than 65% higher – with steel production down by around 4%.
EU steel makers increase turnover but still cut jobs
At the same time, domestic steel makers also cut more than 5,000 jobs last year (Source: EUROFER, approx. 303,000 employees in 2023, approx. 298,000 in 2024). In addition, from 2023 to 2024, raw material prices (e.g. iron ore) fell by almost 11% and energy costs in the EU (non-household consumers) by approx. 10%.
SMEs are being cheated out of competitiveness
With figures like these, one really wonders who needs to be protected from what or whom? In any case, EU steel makers do not need to be protected, given their questionable methods, arguments and figures.
Rather, small and medium-sized enterprises, traders, importers and consumers of steel and stainless steel must finally be protected from large corporations.
The behaviour of the steel makers oligopoly is destroying the competitiveness of domestic SMEs. We therefore call for genuine democracy in Brussels. The socialist planned economy and self-service mentality of EU steel makers has had its day.
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