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Long-touted European stainless steel recovery not happening in 2026, Aperam chief says

By Reuters News

By Javi West Larrañaga

Nov 6 (Reuters) - Luxembourg-based stainless steel producer Aperam APAM.AS is not counting on the long-touted demand recovery in Europe happening in 2026, CEO Sud Sivaji told Reuters on Friday, saying customers were still in a wait-and-see mode.

"For the past three and a half years, people have been hoping and praying and talking about demand recovery," Sivaji said in the interview. "(But) we've always said that real, underlying, demand is not picking up."

The comments echo similar statements from Finnish peer Outokumpu and Spain's Acerinox, both of which have guided for lower earnings in the last quarter of 2026.

Asked about possible demand drivers, Sivaji said a recovery could be triggered by either a cooldown in the AI-related market turbulence or a resolution in the Iran war leading to more normalised energy prices.

Even with energy efficiency measures in place, the Middle East conflict is currently hurting Aperam's core earnings by €20 million ($22.4 million) each quarter, he said.

Earlier on Friday, Aperam guided for a slight sequential rise in its fourth-quarter core earnings. Sivaji said this meant around €110 million, about 25% below an LSEG consensus estimate of €149 million.

The discrepancy was mostly caused by analysts not taking higher energy costs into account, he said.

"Our guidance hasn't changed since July ... when the entire industry is being euphoric they end up taking that formula and applying it (to us)."

($1 = 0.8930 euros)

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