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Steel Arc is written by a team of veterans with 20–30 years across European and Asian markets. We cover the forces remaking the industry — green transition, AI on the mill floor, CBAM, geopolitics, and the trade flows that shape everything else.

New articles every 2–3 days. No noise. No filler. Just the analysis that helps you think clearly about where steel is going.

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Latest article
Steel Arc
May 12, 2026
⚡ CBAM & Green Transition
CBAM's first real bills are landing. Who absorbs the €68/tonne hit?
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism has moved from theory to invoice. Chinese mills exporting HRC to Europe now face a carbon cost that structurally changes the landed price calculus for the first time in a generation.
Steel Arc View
The real CBAM winner isn't the EU mill. It's the EU scrap dealer. When Chinese HRC becomes uncompetitive, EAF capacity fills the gap — and it needs scrap.
EU HRC
€618/t
▲ 2.3%
China FOB
$453/t
▼ 1.9%
ETS Carbon
€64.20
▲ 3.4%
01 ——
Veterans, not analysts
Written by people who've run trading desks, walked mill floors, and negotiated raw material contracts — not by reporters covering steel from the outside.
02 ——
Every 2–3 days
Not a weekly round-up that buries the signal in chronology. Not a daily feed that overwhelms. Articles published when there is something worth saying — and not before.
03 ——
Future-defining issues only
We don't cover yesterday's price move. We cover the transitions — green steel, AI, CBAM, geopolitics — that will determine which companies and countries win the next chapter of the industry.
04 ——
Europe & Asia, connected
The most important steel stories run between these two regions. We cover the connective tissue — trade flows, carbon policy, technology transfer — that others treat as separate markets.

The issues that
define the future of steel.

The steel industry is at an inflection point unlike anything in the last 40 years. Steel Arc exists to make sense of that inflection — with the depth it deserves.

🌱
Green Transition
From blast furnace to electric arc
The shift from BF-BOF to DRI-EAF is the largest capital reallocation in steel history. We track the economics, the hydrogen supply chain, the scrap constraints, and the companies getting it right — and wrong.
🔒
CBAM & Carbon Regulation
The carbon border that changes everything
CBAM is not a policy story. It is a competitiveness story. Who wins, who loses, how import flows reshape, what it means for scrap premiums — we cover it with numbers, not sentiment.
🤖
AI & Technology
What's actually being deployed on the mill floor
Not vendor press releases. Real deployments, actual ROI data, and an honest account of why AI implementation in steel is harder than anyone admits — and where it's working anyway.
🌍
Geopolitics & Trade
The war, the tariffs, the reroutes
Russia's export reroute via Turkey. US Section 232 and its aftershocks. India's safeguard investigations. China's structural overcapacity. These are not headlines — they are the structural conditions every steel professional operates inside.
📊
Markets & Trade Flows
Follow the steel, not the press release
HRC arbitrage windows, scrap availability in a green-steel world, the India demand story, Southeast Asia as the overflow market — we track where steel actually moves, and why.
🏭
Industry & M&A
Consolidation, investment, and what it signals
Capex decisions, M&A moves, executive changes — not as gossip but as signals of strategic intent. Nippon Steel post-US Steel. Tata IJmuiden. The private equity interest in EU service centres. We connect the dots.

What steel
intelligence looks like.

Perspective
Generic trade press → Analysis from 20–30 year veterans
Every article is written or reviewed by someone who has made the decisions being analysed — not someone reporting on them from outside.
Frequency
Daily noise → Articles when there's something to say
We publish every 2–3 days. Never to fill a schedule. Only when the analysis is ready and the topic warrants it.
Scope
Yesterday's prices → Tomorrow's competitive dynamics
Steel Arc focuses on the forces that will define the industry over the next 5–10 years — not the week-on-week moves you can get from any data terminal.
Audience
Written for everyone → Written for insiders
No glossary. No "what is an EAF?" We assume you know the industry and give you the 20-year-context analysis that only veterans can provide.
Opinion
Balanced "on one hand..." → Clear editorial view, clearly labelled
The "Steel Arc View" callout in every article states our position plainly. We are diplomatically honest — not dishonestly diplomatic.
"The steel industry has plenty of data services. What it doesn't have is enough people willing to connect the dots — and tell you what it actually means for your business next quarter."
— Editorial team, Steel Arc
Steel Arc View — Sample
"CBAM is not a regulation. It is a permanent restructuring of the EU-Asia steel arbitrage. The mills and traders who treat it as a compliance exercise will discover this the hard way."
— Issue #12, May 2026

Written by people
who've been in the room.

Steel Arc is produced by a small team of industry veterans with between 20 and 30 years of experience across flat products, long products, raw materials, trading, and technology — in Europe and Asia. No single voice. No single perspective. One shared commitment to rigour.

EM
Markets & Trade Flows
Europe & Asia Markets Editor
28 years · Flat products, trading, DACH & South Asia
Former senior trading role at a major EU flat-roll producer. Deep background in EU-Asia HRC arbitrage, import competition, and raw material sourcing. Has lived and worked in Germany, India, and the UAE.
GT
Green Steel & Technology
Decarbonisation & Technology Editor
24 years · EAF technology, DRI, carbon markets
Spent 12 years with a leading steelmaking technology OEM before moving to the buy side. Covered DRI-EAF transitions across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Knows what the vendor presentations don't show you.
SK
Policy, CBAM & Geopolitics
Regulatory & Geopolitics Editor
22 years · Trade policy, EU regulation, Asia-Pacific
Previously in legal and government affairs at a major steel association, then moved to a global trading house. Has tracked EU trade defence measures, safeguard investigations, and carbon policy from both sides of the table.
Our commitment
Independent.
Always.

Steel Arc's editorial team holds no equity stakes, advisory positions, or financial interests in any company we cover. Sponsor relationships are clearly disclosed and entirely separate from editorial content. We will never publish paid coverage without labelling it as such.

We sometimes disagree with each other. When we do, we say so — and we show our reasoning. The Steel Arc View represents a considered editorial position, not a consensus reached to avoid offending anyone.

Every article.
Same architecture.

Each Steel Arc article is structured to be readable in 5 minutes, referenceable in a meeting, and worth going back to a week later. Click a section to preview.

01
The Signal
Main deep-dive, 600–800 words
02
Steel Arc View
Our clear editorial position
03
Quick Read
4 short items, 2–3 sentences
04
Market Data
Prices, spreads, trade data
05
From the Floor
Unfiltered editorial voice
⚡ The Signal — Deep Dive
The AI mill is here. It's just not evenly distributed.
Three months ago, POSCO quietly announced an AI-driven quality prediction system across its Gwangyang hot strip mill. Scrap rate down 18%. No press conference. Just a line in a Korean-language operational report that almost nobody read. That gap — between what's being deployed and what's being reported — is exactly what Steel Arc exists to close.
Steel Arc View
The AI race in steel is a data hygiene race. The mills deploying AI fastest are the ones that digitised their historian data 10 years ago on unrelated projects. Competitive advantage compounds quietly.
What's actually being deployed today: predictive maintenance on reheating furnaces (4–8% gas reduction), AI-assisted grade change sequencing in continuous casters, computer vision for surface defect detection at line speeds above 12 m/s.
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