25 September 2025 – The EU Trade Commissioner wants to make a fresh push for exemptions from US steel and aluminium tariffs, after his previous efforts went unanswered. Will he have any luck this time? Copper prices have risen sharply. Stainless steel demand is increasing. Steel prices in Europe have jumped by up to 9%.
Copper prices surge sharply
After a landslide at a major Indonesian copper mine, copper prices on the European and Asian commodity exchanges LME and SHFE rose significantly. On the LME, copper rose overnight by around 3.8%, while on the SHFE copper futures increased by 3.4%.
The company affected currently assumes that due to the accident, output at the copper mine will fall by 35% or 270,000 tonnes in 2026. This would correspond to around 1% of annual global copper production.
Stainless steel demand in China up 8.7%
Chinese demand for stainless steel increased significantly in August, rising by more than 8.7%. Stainless steel prices in Asia have recently moved higher, further supported by stable nickel prices over recent weeks. Analysts currently see potential annual market growth in stainless steel of up to 9.6% until 2031.
Steel prices in Europe rising
Market sources are currently reporting sharp price increases in European hot-rolled coil of up to EUR 50 per tonne (+9%). The rise began shortly after the end of the European summer holidays. Reasons cited include increased raw material costs but also the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), starting on 1 January 2026, which European producers are now using to raise prices on the internal EU market.
US tariffs: new EU push on steel and aluminium?
During the European Parliament’s debate on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address on 10 September, Manfred Weber, chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP) group, stressed that the EPP had been the only group to support the tariff deal with the United States. He argued that apart from a trade war there had been no alternative. Other MEPs also praised the deal and presented it as without alternative.
EU Trade Commissioner repeatedly rebuffed in Washington
In contrast to the praise and “no alternatives” from MEPs stands the still unsuccessful effort of the rather hapless EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič to gain any traction on US steel and aluminium tariffs. Šefčovič told Bloomberg that he had raised the issue with the US side on several occasions but had never received a reply to its proposal.
Šefčovič and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are expected to meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN ministerial summit in Kuala Lumpur, where the Trade Commissioner wants to raise the issue with the steel and aluminium tariffs again.
Previously, when the issue was raised, the US Trade Representative wanted nothing to do with the topic of metal tariffs and referred Bloomberg journalists to the responsible US Department of Commerce. But there too, silence prevails.
EU steel exports to the US had risen significantly
European steelmakers have exported significantly more steel to the United States in recent years – most recently the increase has even exceeded 2 million tonnes per year. US President Donald Trump subsequently cited EU steel exports to the United States as one of the reasons for raising and expanding Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminium.
German Finance Minister makes demands on steel
And while we are on the subject of unsuccessful socialists: the German Finance Minister (SPD) resorted to socialist standard rhetoric on Tuesday when presenting his draft 2026 federal budget in the Bundestag, saying that Germany must not allow “cheap and dirty steel from China or elsewhere to come here.”
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The lack of success of his socialist comrade Šefčovič alone should be sufficient proof of how much understanding of trade and entrepreneurial thinking a socialist finance minister can have. With regard to dirty steel, we would like to refer you to our article from yesterday. This should clarify where clean steel will really come from in the future.
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