The EU steel industry is uniting to protect its downstream enterprises
On April 14, at a press conference during the pipe and wire exhibition in Dusseldorf, the EUROMETAL Steel Manufacturers Association, supported by more than 330 signatories to the EU Steel industry value-added agreement, issued a "call to action" aimed at protecting the European steel and metals value chain.
Entitled "Protection of the European Steel and steel industry", an information document will be sent to representatives of the EU national governments and the European Commission on April 15, highlighting the urgent need to extend regulatory protections to the EU steel industry. industries are consumers.
The campaign, led by EUROMETAL, provides for a number of measures deemed necessary to "protect and revitalize" European industry.:
- A new trade regime that "complements" the EU's protective measures for steel, which comes into force for all CN codes in headings 73-95 and is ready to be introduced on July 1.;
- a similar extension of CBAM to steel derivatives and metal-intensive products;
- The "Made in the EU" requirements apply to all public procurement and financing schemes;
- "Cost reduction measures" that will limit industrial electricity prices to a maximum of 5 cents per kilowatt hour, slow down the phase-out of free meals under the ETS/CBAM, and reduce bureaucracy at the EU and national levels (including "suspending additional regulations and adjusting existing regulations")
Speaking at a press conference, EUROMETAL President Alexander Julius spoke about how recent and ongoing geopolitical events dictate the need for a new regulatory framework, calling the "Trumpian" approach the EU's last chance to prevent further erosion of its industrial base to replace imports with steel derivatives, which undermines its national and social security.
.Thus, EUROMETAL calls for a fundamental change in the European Commission's approach to trade regulation, considering strict – and increasingly sole – EU compliance with the WTO framework obsolete in today's geopolitical context. The European Commission did commit to lowering the threshold for trade protection investigations in last year's Steel and Metals Action Plan, but market sources note a slight improvement in the authorities' response to trade, as evidenced by the lack of progress in ongoing anti-dumping investigations, for example, regarding cold-rolled coils.
Although the WTO framework is something of a "scarecrow" in today's tense global context.