EUROFER welcomes Commission’s decisive action to deal with import surges

Axel Eggert, Director General of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), said “The Commission has received overwhelming support for this vital safeguard measure from both member states and business. The measure will go someway to ensuring the continued stability of the internal market for steel and ensure that EU steel producers do not suffer extreme surges of imports of steel deflected away from the now constricted US market.”

He said “Moreover, users of steel will still be able to access ‘traditional’ steel trade flows without any tariff and at the highest EU import level ever. The past few years have seen imports rise up to 30.6 million tonnes of steel in 2017 – a rise of 62% compared to 2013.”

He also said “The mere inkling of a potential safeguard has encouraged steel exporting countries to flood the market with deflected steel: a 10% rise was observed in the first quarter of 2018[1], over and above the record highs of the same period in 2017. Steel exporters can be expected to continue this effort to inundate the EU market up until the point that the quota is filled. This front-loading could well do the damage the safeguard is designed to prevent, which is why EUROFER suggested a country-specific and quarterly Tariff Rate Quota right from the outset”.

He concluded “We nevertheless firmly welcome the Commissions decisive efforts in its investigation and hope that any shortcomings in the new safeguard can be ironed out in time for the final measure in 200 days’ time.”

Source : Strategic Research Institute, SteelGuru

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