The EU steel safeguard measures explained - Infographic

The European Steel Association recently published an infographic explaining how the definitive EU steel safeguard measures (which came into effect on February 2) work. The document also highlights some of the issues the provision failed to address.

It’s no secret that the steel market has been in a tight spot since the introduction of the Trump steel tariffs in 2018. This combined with several other factors such as increasing import volumes, flat demand, sharp rises in raw material costs and stagnant economic growth are now threatening the delicate balance of the European steel sector and might spark off a new crisis if not dealt with appropriately.

The steel safeguard measures are the European Commission response to import surges caused by Section 232. According to Eurofer, for every 3 tons of steel deflected from the US market, 2 tons are diverted to EU.

The safeguard measures in short: all steel products within the 26 categories affected by the provision are subject to a set of tariff quotas, based on the average volume of traditional imports over 2015-17 plus 5%. Only once this quota is exceeded, a 25% tariff is applied to other imported products. A further 5% relaxation is scheduled for July 2019 and February 2020.

Given the critical situation of the steel market, the safeguard measures are by all means welcome. However, according to Eurofer the effectiveness of such measures in their current form is threatened by this progressive 5% “relaxation” on steel imports, which is considered to be “overgenerous” to steel exporters to EU.

Click here to view the full infographic of the EU steel safeguard measures >>

Photo by worldsteel / Robert Kolykhalov