Steel and Aluminium have seen a fierce increase in prices for already 3 years, but since February 2022 prices have been practically skyrocketing, certain products up to 400% more, with delivery times 12-18 or even 24 months. This impacts heavily on many economic sectors in Europe, like constructions where reinforcement steel is lacking, or windmills production, which urgently needed to become independent from Russia’s gas.
The reasons are 3: one the “trade defence measures” decided by the European Commission in 2018 to avoid too much Chinese steel and aluminium for highly competitive prices can be imported to the EU after the US had stopped imports of the same products. Two, the European steel and aluminium producers, like Thyssen-Krupp, Arcelor Mittal, etc. have reduced their production during COVID-19 for several reasons, and are not able to satisfy the EU’s domestic demand. This creates extremely high extra-profits and extremely high prices, pushing inflation in practically every sector where these products are needed. And three, the sanctions against Russia and the countersanctions by Russia against the EU, as well as the breakdown of the Ukrainian economy, with the symbolic destruction of the Asov Steel Plant in Mariupol.
European Entrepreneurs CEA-PME has asked immediately after the outbreak of Russia’s war on Ukraine and after the then immediately decided sanctions by the EU and by Russia to re-open the review procedure on steel and aluminium import limits due to these extraordinary circumstances. We made resolutions, we wrote letters and we met with experts from Germany and Italy high-level decision-makers of the responsible Directorate General DG TRADE. But until today DG TRADE did not re-open this review procedure.
Until the end of June 2022, the Member States and the Commission have to make a decision.
At the current stage, it is unlikely the Commission will undertake any changes to the import limits and to the customs on exceeding quantities, which will worsen the present economic crisis even more. A price that will be paid by the Small and Medium-sized Companies and by all consumers, in a moment when we would need economic relief to face the new challenges like decoupling from Russia, preventing climate change and reaching energy sovereignty.
We call the Commission, but also all European Member States to strongly increase the import quotas for steel and aluminium, and to significantly reduce the customs on exceeding imports, and not maintain the same unjustified and wrong customs regime!
