18 July 2025 – Spot market prices for hot rolled coil (HRC) in China posted further gains this week. Other steel products also continued to rise in price. The German Federal Senate calls on federal government to implement EU Steel and Metals Action Plan, even though nothing is ready yet.
Prices for Chinese hot rolled coil continue upward trend
Spot market prices for hot rolled coil (HRC) in China have risen steadily over the past four weeks. Since the end of June, HRC prices have risen by approximately 3.9%. This week alone, HRC prices rose by approximately 1.8%.
In addition to HRC, other Chinese steel products also recorded price increases on the spot markets this week. Prices for cold-rolled coils rose by 1.4% this week, those for pig iron by 1.0% and those for slabs by around 0.8%.
Iron ore prices on the DCE and SGX moved sideways at the end of the week. Previously, they had posted significant gains in some cases, and iron ore futures on the SGX were able to maintain their jump to over USD 100/MT on Wednesday and today, Friday.
German Federal Senate in favour of EU Steel and Metals Action Plan
At its last meeting before the summer break, the German Federal Senate spoke out in favour of implementing the EU Steel and Metals Action Plan quickly and in its current form.
EU Steel and Metals Action Plan little more than a piece of paper so far
However, if you take a look at the plan in its current form, there is no noteworthy content that could have been voted on in the Federal Senate. Thus, we see once again that the EU Steel and Metals Action Plan is intended to be implemented as a purely political instrument before it has been fully thought through. Where this leads can be seen very clearly in the Brussels bureaucratic monster CBAM.
Looking at the distribution of seats in the German Federal Senate, it is composed of members of parties such as the SPD and the Greens, in addition to the CDU/CSU. The advocates of the Action Plan were Social Democrats from Bremen and Saarland (read more about the prominent connections between the Saar SPD and the German steel industry here) and the Greens from North Rhine-Westphalia, who were supported by a state minister from Saxony-Anhalt, which does not even have a steel mill in its own federal state.
Green EU parliamentarian: 66% increase in EU budget is ‘little more than inflation compensation’
And German MEP Daniel Freund (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) once again made it very clear yesterday what Greens understand about business and figures. In a public statement, he described the planned 66% increase in the EU budget for 2028-2034, from approximately 1.2 trillion euros to 2 trillion euros, as a ‘moderate increase in the EU budget’. Daniel Freund also said in the same context: ‘This is basically little more than an inflation compensation.’ Furthermore, he does not mention the revenue problem in the draft budget presented by the dubious EU Commission and its president.
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