About 1,200 exhibitors from 54 countries gathered for the pipe and wire exhibition, which was held in Dusseldorf, Germany, from April 13 to 17. Here, Fastmarkets summarizes the key findings from the event in the steel sector.
The processing industry is sounding the alarm
On April 14, EUROMETAL, the European Federation of Steel Distributors, Traders and Service Centers, issued a "call to action to protect the European steel industry," which has already been supported by more than 360 signatories across the steel sector, including national federations, distributors and steel producers.
During a press conference attended by representatives of Fastmarkets, EUROMETAL outlined key requirements for protecting the industry, warning of accelerating deindustrialization.
• Trade protection: The introduction of tariffs and quotas on metal derivatives in accordance with the measures of the United States and Canada and to counter unfair imports.
• Extension of the Carbon Boundary Regulation Mechanism (CBAM): A similar step for CBAM is to extend the mechanism to subsequent products to prevent carbon leakage and movement.
• "Made in the EU" rules: the priority of European-made goods in public procurement and financing to support domestic industry.
• Cost reduction: Reduction of industrial electricity prices to 5 cents per kWh, revision of the rules of the EU emissions trading system and reduction of the burden on regulators.
The need to act quickly was highlighted by Alexander Julius, President of EUROMETAL; Markus Fix, Managing Director of the DM —Stahl service center; Heino Buddenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Waelzholz, a global manufacturer of high-quality cold-rolled steel strip and shaped wire; and Georgios Giovanakis, Sales Director of the Thyssenkrupp steel company.
They said that the "Trumpian" approach should be used to include steel derivatives in the scope of the new trade regime from July 1.
"Europe risks losing steel processing and production based on it," said Julius. "This will put Europe in a new dependence on critical components, which will further weaken its economic stability."
Stakeholders argued that, given the growing instability of the geopolitical environment, the pace of regulation in the EU is struggling to keep pace with the faster and more interventionist approaches seen in other major economies, especially the United States.
"We occupy the first place after the steel industry, producing precision sheet in Germany, Brazil and China, and we see that Europe is more or less going out of business because
