Peter Sikorski at the European Economic Congress called for the protection of the entire steel production and distribution chain
At the 18th European Economic Congress 2026 in Katowice, Piotr Sikorski, member of the Board of EUROMETAL and President of the Polish Association of the Metallurgical Industry (PUDS), made a convincing statement at a session dedicated to ferrous metallurgy. His message was clear and urgent: Europe must rethink its approach to the steel market and take decisive steps to protect the entire value chain, not just individual segments.
Describing the steel market as "a system of interconnected vessels," Sikorski emphasized that all participants — steel producers, distributors, processors, and end users - are deeply interdependent. The pressure exerted on one part of the system inevitably affects the entire system. In this context, he pointed to the growing structural imbalance between global steelmaking capacity and actual production, recalling that in 2025, excess capacity will reach approximately 650 million tons, with further expansion expected in Asia and the Middle East. At the same time, Europe's share in global steel and rolled metal production continues to decline, reflecting a steady decline in competitiveness.
According to Sikorski, this loss of competitiveness is due to a combination of high energy costs, regulatory uncertainty and an increasingly complex legislative environment. European producers and processing industries face costs that are significantly higher than those of their global competitors, while policies continue to evolve without providing sufficient predictability. In addition to supply-side issues, he warned that regulation is currently also putting pressure on demand, further weakening the industrial ecosystem.
Despite the fact that steel consumption has shown some resilience in recent years, the reality is much more worrying. Key industries such as automotive, mechanical engineering, and household appliance manufacturing are showing negative dynamics, indicating a deeper structural shift. Sikorsky stressed that this is not just a cyclical decline, but the result of a deep transformation of the market caused by a rapid increase in imports of steel-containing products. Over the past fifteen years, imports of goods such as steel cables, chassis, and components for air conditioning systems have increased dramatically, especially to Poland, but also throughout the European Union. This trend indicates that international competitors are increasingly targeting the recycling segments, effectively bypassing traditional trade protection measures focused on primary