German steel industry calls for comprehensive EU trade measures to address global overcapacity
The alliance includes the Chambers of Commerce of Ostbrandenburg, Saarland, Braunschweig, Potsdam, Osnabrück–Emsland–Bentheim County, Ostturingen-zu Gera and the Netherlands Duisburg-Wesel-Kleve Metallurgical Company, representing all the steel regions of Germany.
In its statement, the alliance reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that steel production is carried out in a fair and comparable competitive environment, without unfair advantages resulting from low environmental and safety standards or harmful subsidies. The European steel industry plays a crucial role in the production value and employment chains, providing thousands of jobs directly and millions more indirectly. The Alliance stressed that Europe's environmental transformation depends on a stable and fair market environment that allows for long-term investments. The steel sector has significant potential to reduce CO₂ emissions, and its expertise can be used to support decarbonization processes worldwide.
According to the CCI-Steel Alliance, protecting the European steel industry from unfair global competition is not only an economic necessity, but also a strategic imperative of Europe's autonomy and green transition. The European steel sector is under unprecedented pressure, especially due to overcapacity in Asia. This led to a sharp increase in imports of cheap products, which jeopardized the viability of domestic production. In regions with high levels of steel production, this has led to lower capacity utilization, lower competitiveness, and stagnant investment in green technologies.
The Alliance stressed the need to create an effective trade protection mechanism to increase the resilience of steel production and processing enterprises in the EU to unfair practices. The proposed measures include consistent punishment for unfair competition, the introduction of a tariff quota regime (TQR), the comprehensive establishment of quotas for all steel products and countries of origin, as well as the introduction of additional duties for volumes exceeding quotas. Other key recommendations include the adoption of a rule of origin "in a molten form" for greater transparency, the creation of an anti-crisis mechanism to respond to short-term shocks to supply or demand, quarterly quota allocation and annual reviews.
In addition, the alliance called for protective measures to be extended to the steel refining sectors and called for the early implementation of the European Action Plan.