EU retaliatory measures could hit US pipe
The European Commission has launched an information gathering exercise to gauge stakeholder feedback on possible retaliatory measures to US tariffs, which could impact US steel pipe supply to the EU.
The Donald Trump administration implemented the 25% blanket tariff on US steel imports on 12 March, as expected, Kallanish notes.
The EU has announced countermeasures worth €26 billion ($28.3 billion), to be implemented in two stages. From 1 April, the Commission will allow to lapse the suspension of existing 2018 and 2020 countermeasures worth €8 billion against certain US products. From 13 April, the EU will apply a new package of countermeasures impacting €16 billion of US-origin imports.
Among the products proposed for inclusion in these measures are various HS code 7302 rail products, 7304 seamless pipe products and 7305 and 7306 welded pipe classifications. The overall tonnages are, however, low.
According to Eurostat data, the EU imported up to 22,172 tonnes of these products from the US in 2024, up 53% on-year. The value of imports was €82.4 million ($89.7m), up 43%.
Stakeholders have until 26 March to respond to the proposals, after which the Commission will assess the input and then finalise its draft implementing act and consult its Member States.
The US tariffs will affect a total of €26 billion of EU exports, which corresponds to approximately 5% of total EU goods exports to the US. Based on current import flows, this will result in US importers having to pay up to €6 billion in additional import tariffs, the Commission says.
“We deeply regret this measure,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in response to the US tariffs being implemented on Wednesday. “We will always remain open to negotiation … We are ready to engage in meaningful dialogue. I have entrusted Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič to resume his talks to explore better solutions with the US.”
The EU previously extended its suspension of countermeasures on US products in December 2023, to provide time to find an agreement on the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium (GASSA). This agreement, widely touted by the EU’s steel industry, is now presumably dead in the water.
Adam Smith Poland
WTO notification confirms EU’s proposed safeguard adjustments
Consultations with interested WTO members will be held on 11-18 March.
The European Union has notified adjustments to its safeguard measures on certain steel imports, with changes set to take effect in two phases, according to the notice published on the WTO website on 12 March, Kallanish notes.
The notification confirms the details provided in the leaked European Commission document earlier this week.
The first set of adjustments will come into force on 1 April, including the division of Category 1 into two subcategories, updates to the list of WTO developing countries excluded from safeguard measures, the removal of access to residual quotas in specific product categories, the redistribution of sanction volumes, and the introduction of quota caps in areas experiencing strong import pressure.
A second phase of changes will take effect on 1 July, when the liberalisation rate will be reduced from 1% to 0.1%. Additionally, the carry-over mechanism for unused quotas will be repealed in categories facing significant import pressure. The safeguard measure itself will remain in place until 30 June 2026, with a planned liberalisation rate of 0.1% per year.
With these changes, the Commission aims to balance trade while stabilising the EU steel industry, which has been affected by weak consumption and global overcapacity. While exporters and users will still have access to duty-free quotas, new limitations will apply to ensure the safeguard measure remains effective. Stakeholders must contact the European Commission within the designated timeframe for further consultation.
Elina Virchenko Turkey
Klöckner plays down Europe price recovery
Klöckner & Co is remaining low-key about the pace of price recovery in Europe. Its chief executive, Guido Kerkhoff, says he is hesitant to describe the development too positively, given the market is still shaky in its effort to stabilise.
“I do not yet see a positive trend on the horizon,” he told Kallanish during a conference call on Wednesday. Prices are picking up but very slowly, because customers remain reserved with making big investments. “The market is still delicate and needs to be preserved and nurtured with care, so to speak,” he said.
It would take a government investment incentive programme to ensure activity picks up. The German-based company is therefore pinning its hopes on the new German government. This is currently being formed in a coalition of the conservative CDU and social democrat SPD parties, as well as possibly one further partner party.
Obvious sectors for investment are residential construction, infrastructure and defence, Kerkhoff said. The latter field is cited increasingly as a cause for public spending. Klöckner recently installed an advanced laser facility in Kassel, mainly targeting agricultural machinery, mechanical engineering, and defence. Moreover, if the war in Ukraine came to an end soon, and the county regained peace, its reconstruction would be a task for foreign steel suppliers, Kerkhoff noted.
The company’s US business had to concede even steeper price falls than in Europe last year, by 40%, but managed to handle them reasonably well due to its shift to higher value-added services. “This would not have been possible six or seven years ago,” Kerkhoff concluded.
Christian Koehl Germany
EU safeguard proposals disappoint steel stainless sector
The European Commission’s safeguard measure review has not met the expectations of the EU’s stainless steel mills or processors.
Sources were reacting to a European Commission document leaked on Tuesday, which was then confirmed in a WTO notification on Wednesday.
The proposed amendments to EU safeguards include new caps for carbon steel, but there appears to be no indication of additional import restrictions for stainless steel coils and long products.
A stainless steel bar manufacturer voiced their apprehension about the insufficient protective measures against lower-priced products from Asia, especially from India. Eurofer is reportedly gearing up to address the proposals. The Commission is holding a consultation period on 11-18 March.
The outlook for future European price increases for stainless bar appears uncertain. A continued material influx from other countries into Europe is likely to reduce domestic sales and maintain compressed margins in the market.
The safeguard quotas for stainless coil and other flat products remain unchanged, with the existing quotas still in effect. A prominent steel processor and a steel producer, who communicated with Kallanish shortly before the document was leaked, had expressed optimism that the announcement would catalyse an increase in flats prices.
The current concern, however, is that the increase attempts in Europe may not gain sufficient traction, leading customers to persist with purchasing lower-cost material from Asia. According to two sources, stainless sheet prices in Europe continue to be comparatively low when assessed against the cost of cold rolled coil feedstock. Sheet is at approximately €2,600/tonne ($2,840) ex-works, while European CRC at €2,500/t for May delivery indicates a constrained environment for margins and profitability.
“I believe the Commission has now expressed a firm political will on import restrictions. The EU must want to preserve the relationship with Asian countries, particularly when the rapport with the US has become tricky. Regarding stainless, the [leaked] document represents 40 pages of nothing. This will strongly impact the sector that has suffered months of unsustainable margins. This represents a significant setback for producers but also for the downstream, as it is unlikely that coils derivatives will increase,” a coil buyer comments.
Import restrictions will continue to apply to nations such as China and Taiwan; however, there has been no implementation of a cap. This quarter, multiple buyers have acquired CRC from various Asian sources, notably Korea.
The Commission has proposed that carbon steel products that have experienced severe import surges receive additional restrictions such as new quota caps and revising the administration of unused quotas. Adjustments also include reducing liberalisation rates from 1% to 0.1%, to slow tariff-rate quota (TRQ) expansion and ensure a better balance with market demand.
Natalia Capra France
Klöckner sports new image as metals processor company
Klöckner & Co is promoting a new image as it is developing from a steel distributor to a service centre and higher value-added business company.
The German-based group “is seen as a steel distributor, but actually we have become a metals processor company,” chief executive Guido Kerkhoff said during a conference call on Wednesday.
The company has in recent years significantly shifted its focus to its higher-value processing and metalworking business in its core markets of North America and the DACH region – Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It divested the distribution-only sites in western Europe and in Brazil. In 2024, the group already generated over 80% of its sales from the steel service centre and higher value-added business.
Through targeted investments, distribution centres were transformed into production and processing hubs for higher-value metal solutions, Kerkhoff pointed out. “Despite the difficult environment last year, we have continued our investments, rather than postponing them, which sent a positive signal,” he said.
In Switzerland, a country with a night ban for road haulage, the company optimised logistic links between railway and road haulage, using trains at night, and reloading to trucks for close-range delivery in the morning. That allowed it to close several warehouses used only for close-range distribution.
The group’s many activities in North America, especially, have spurred the development, Kallanish heard Kerkhoff say during the call. One major move there currently is the firm’s investment in a flat-rolled aluminium processing facility on the campus of Aluminum Dynamics LLC (ADL), a subsidiary of Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI).
Another signal for Klöckner’s new image is the relocation from Duisburg to Düsseldorf, although it did not highlight this during the call. Duisburg, the unofficial capital of Germany’s rust belt, was Klöckner’s headquarters for decades. Along with the demise of the city’s steel industry and overall social environment, Klöckner moved to a new home in Düsseldorf last year, a city known for arts, fashion, and techno culture.
Christian Koehl Germany
Italian plate prices mainly flat; imports from South Korea to take a major hit from new safeguards
Italy
In Italy, offers for S275 heavy plate were reported by buyers and sellers at €660-670 ($719-730) per tonne ex-works, stable week on week.
Transactions for such material were heard at lower levels of €640-650 per tonne ex-works. One supplier reported having sealed a deal for a minor tonnage at €660 per tonne ex-works.
The cost of import slab – the key feedstock for plate production – was stable at $500-530 per tonne CFR. But due to the US dollar depreciation against the euro, rerollers felt more “comfortable” maintaining heavy plate prices at €640-650 per tonne ex-works.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate, 8-40mm, exw Southern Europe was unchanged at €640-650 per tonne on Wednesday.
The US dollar was hovering around at $1.09 to €1 on Wednesday, compared with $1.04 to €1 a month earlier.
Trading in the spot market for heavy plate has picked up in March compared with the low levels observed in January and February, but overall traded volumes remained limited.
Sources expect no major price changes in the near term, they said.
Safeguards reaction
The market was digesting news about safeguard adjustments, which were made available on Tuesday March 11
While quota cuts for heavy plate were not as severe as expected (see table), there was a newly introduced cap per single country over the tariff rate quota (TRQ) volume initially available in each quarter, set at 20%.
This will affect steel plate imports falling under the ‘other countries’ category. Notably, South Korea, Indonesia and India are major heavy plate suppliers to the EU under that category, offering the most competitive prices, according to market participants in Europe.
For example, the total allowance for steel heavy plate deliveries from ‘other countries’ for 2025 is set around 2.2 million tonnes. That means that with the 20% cap, each individual country falling under “other countries” category cannot supply more than 440,000 tonnes per year of steel plate to Europe.
Major disruption from new safeguards was expected for South Korean suppliers.
Notably, in 2024, South Korea delivered around 800,839 tonnes of plate to the EU, according to Global Trade Tracker (GTT) statistics, which is double the new allocation volumes.
India supplied around 470,816 tonnes of plate to the bloc in 2024, while Indonesia supplied 430,693 tonnes.
The most recent deals for May-shipment plate from South Korea to Italy and Spain were done at €570-580 per tonne CFR in early March.
Fastmarkets weekly assessment for steel plate (8-40mm) import, cfr main port Southern Europe was at €570-580 per tonne on Wednesday, stable week on week.
Sources said the move to maintain the individual heavy plate quota for Ukraine was a “strange decision” considering that after the Russian invasion of the country in 2022, plate exports from Ukraine have almost vanished.
Ukraine’s key plate-producing assets were Metinvest’s Mariupol-based plants Azovstal and Ilyich Iron & Steel, but as a result of Russia’s invasion, Metinvest has lost control of both.
In 2024, total plate deliveries from Ukraine to Europe were practically zero, GTT statistics show.
“It’s a weird decision to keep individual plate quota for Ukraine, considering that plate-producing facilities have been destroyed by Russia. Those volumes could have been added to global [plate] quota,” one buyer in Italy said.
Besides, Ukrainian steel imports has been exempted from EU anti-dumping duties and safeguard measures since June 2022 with a further three-year exemption proposed by the European Commission on March 11, 2025.
EU to reinstate rebalancing measures to combat renewed US Section 232 tariffs
Those rebalancing measures include a mirror 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports from the US.
In addition, Brussels will impose further countermeasures on the US, targeting approximately €18 billion-worth ($19.6 billion) of goods, which will then apply together with the reimposed measures from 2018.
“The objective is to ensure that the total value of the EU measures corresponds to the increased value of trade affected by the new US tariffs,” a Commission press release read.
“Since the new US tariffs are significantly broader in scope and affect a significantly higher value of European trade, the Commission launched on March 12 a process to impose additional countermeasures on the US,” the Commission said.
The consultation process for additional countermeasures proposed the targeting of industrial products including steel and aluminium products, home appliances, household tools, plastics, wood products, and more.
The countermeasures were expected to enter into force by mid-April.
Trade background
On March 12, 2025, the US imposed 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium products to include those from the EU.
The imposition of tariffs by the US was expected to lead to trade being diverted to new destinations, with steel products flooding toward markets including the EU, undermining local steelmakers and distorting competition.
“[US] President [Donald] Trump’s ‘America First’ policy threatens to be the final nail in the coffin of the European steel industry,” Dr Henrik Adam, president of European steel association Eurofer, said on March 12.
“If European steel disappears, so too does [the] European automotive [industry], European security and defense, energy infrastructure, transportation and others. What is at stake is European sovereignty,” he added.
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“Under the first Trump administration [in the US], we already witnessed the huge effect of Section 232. EU steel exports to the US decreased by more than 1 million tonnes, while of every three tonnes of steel deflected from the US market because of Section 232, two tonnes arrived in the EU,” he said.
“The US tariffs will probably lead to greater global trade imbalances, with steel that would have been shipped to the US going instead to European markets,” Adam said. “The EU was already contending with cheap steel imports – primarily from Asia, North Africa and the Middle East – and the US decision could exacerbate this situation, further damaging the European steel sector.”
The total amount of carbon steel imports to the EU in 2024 was more than 26.36 million tonnes, up by 6.4% compared with 24.78 million tonnes in 2023, Eurofer statistics showed.
At the same time, apparent steel consumption in the bloc amounted to 127 million tonnes in 2024, down by 2.3% from 130 million tonnes in 2023 and lower than during the 2020 pandemic year, when it was 129 million tonnes.
“EU steel production, which lost 9 million tonnes of capacity and 18,000 jobs in 2024 alone, is at even greater risk,” Eurofer said. “There is also the prospect that yet more steel will be deflected to the EU market if additional reciprocal tariffs are imposed by the US.”
Consequently, Eurofer has urged the European Commission to give an adequate response to the US measures to protect the struggling EU steel sector.
“It is crucial that the revised steel EU safeguard measures are robust and effective, to respond immediately and decisively to counter further deflection of the steel imports flooding the EU market. The time has come,” Adam said.
The EU’s existing steel safeguard measures have been extended several times, and were recently subject to a review, with proposed adjustments revealed on March 11. These adjusted measures were expected to come into force in April.
