After many years of gradual tightening of the European Union's regulatory framework to protect the steel market, the first critical problems of EU systems restricting steel imports are beginning to become clear. In an official statement, Assofermet, an association representing the Italian steel sector, expressed serious concern about the lack of protection at the lower levels of the supply chain, calling on European institutions to radically and timely change their approach.
According to the association, public debate has for too long focused almost exclusively on the needs of extractive steel producers, ignoring the side effects that duties, quotas, and increasing bureaucratic compliance create for refiners, distributors, and end users.users starting from the metalworking sector.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, on July 1, 2026, with the expiration of the current steel protection regime, new and significantly more restrictive provisions on imports into the European Union will come into force. The measures approved by the European Parliament and the Council, which are currently awaiting publication in the Official Journal of the EU, will introduce an annual duty-free quota of approximately 18.3 million tons of steel products. Volumes exceeding this quota will be subject to a 50% duty. Added to this revision is the obligation to trace the country of origin of steel smelting and pouring, and the economic effects of the CBAM, which fully entered into force on January 1, 2026.
Risk of unbalanced protection
Assofermet said she recognizes the need to protect the European steel industry as "understandable and legitimate" in an international context, noted global production capacities and disruptions caused by the Chinese manufacturing system, but she noted that the main thing lies in the imbalance of measures taken.
By protecting only upst steel producers who do not support companies that process and purchase this steel, they harm processors and distributors because:
- The cost of raw materials is increasing dramatically;
- The possibilities of finding suppliers in international markets are gradually decreasing ;
- There is a huge bureaucratic and administrative burden that is becoming increasingly difficult to bear.
The Association stressed that processing and distribution represent the main industrial value added of the European system, as well as the link most susceptible to global competition: "If the EU loses its share in the global manufacturing market and if the continent's economy competitiveness is further reduced due to the accumulation of serious regulatory constraints,
