Fabrizio Di Gianni: EU taking aggressive stand to protect industry
At the EUROMETAL Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, April 8, in cooperation with SteelOrbis, Fabrizio Di Gianni, partner at law firm Van Bael & Bellis, talked about the recent developments in EU trade policy, its Clean Industrial Deal and its Action Plan on Steel and Metals.
Mr. Di Gianni gave details regarding the recent dramatic changes in the EU’s trade policy. He noted that, even though current trade defense instruments continue to play a crucial role, upcoming legislation is equally important for Turkish steelmakers to maintain trade relations with the EU, to keep the possibility of exporting and penetrating the European market, and to gain a strategic advantage.
One of the aspects of the trade policy is the Clean Industrial Deal (CID), which aims to decarbonize energy-intensive industries such as steel and aluminum that are the foundation of industrial growth.
Mr. Di Gianni said there are three main topics in the CID that are of importance to Turkish companies.
One are the Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships (CTIPs), which complement the free trade agreements. Under the CTIPs, clean energy supply chains and strategic trade relations will be strengthened. It will also prioritize clean technologies, renewable energy, and decarbonization.
Secondly, the European Commission (EC) will simplify the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to reduce the burden on the industry, while ensuring carbon-intensive imports are regulated and global decarbonization is promoted. One of the most important changes to the CBAM will be the removal of about 90 percent of importers, mostly small and medium enterprises, from the scope of the mechanism. In addition, the EC will extend the scope of the CBAM to downstream products and to indirect emissions.
Lastly, the CID indicates the possibility of adjusting current tariffs to ensure a level playing field and the strengthening of trade defense instruments such as antidumping and countervailing duties, as well as safeguard measures to cope with the risk of trade frictions, especially as a result of the recent US measures.
Regarding the Action Plan on Steel and Metals, Mr. Di Gianni pointed out that the most crucial aspects of the plan for Turkish companies are the prevention of carbon leakage, and the promotion and protection of European industrial capacities. Therefore, in order to prevent carbon leakage, the threshold for quarterly emissions under the CBAM will be reduced to 50 percent from 80 percent.
The EC is also considering the possibility of extending the CBAM to certain downstream products to eliminate the risk of circumvention. Moreover, as the EC is taking a more aggressive stand, it will change its methods for the investigation. It would normally require evidence that imports from a certain country caused a major material injury.
With the new changes, it will proactively open investigations based on the threat of injury. Furthermore, the commission will launch stronger market surveillance. Also, there might be some modifications to the lesser duty rule, under which antidumping duties are set on the basis of the lowest level between dumping and injury margins. In the meantime, with the introduction of the melted and poured principle, origin will no longer be determined by the country of processing but by the country where the steel was originally melted.
The Van Bael & Bellis official concluded his presentation by saying that, by the third quarter of this year, the commission will consider limiting scrap exports. This could limit access to EU scrap for third-countries recyclers and may reduce the availability of scrap for export, he noted.
Jaap Jan Aardenburg: EU has to be more resilient in the face of more challenging conditions
Speaking at the EUROMETAL Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, April 8, in cooperation with SteelOrbis, Jaap Jan Aardenburg, head of trade affairs of Tata Steel Nederland, made a presentation on the reasons leading to the widespread adoption of protectionist policies in the global market, how these policies affect the globe and how the EU’s preferred protectionist policies are given shape.
Mr. Aardenburg started his presentation with a general view of Tata Steel Nederland’s recent operations. Tata Steel Nederland has two blast furnaces at its integrated plants and has the capacity to produce more that 7 million mt of finished steel annually in more than 17,000 different specifications.
Employing more than 9,000 workers directly and creating 40,000 indirect job opportunities, Tata Steel Nederland has the second-largest steel service center in Europe. Moreover, the company has already started supplying low-carbon steel to end-users, while it is also aiming to replace one of its blast furnaces by EAF- and DRI-based production by 2030.
Addressing the global protectionist policies, the Tata Steel official stated that free trade has much empirical evidence on why it is better for a country’s economy and outlined several factors leading to the adoption of protectionism.
Listing national security, protection of infant industries, environmental policies, protection of jobs, and retaliation like that taken against Trump’s tariffs this year among these reasons, he pointed to the issue of global excess capacity as the single most important reason leading the global markets towards protectionism.
Mr. Aardenburg stated that global excess capacity is currently 602 million mt, and that the fact that demand has weakened in recent years while capacities have continued to increase has made the problem even worse. Regarding China, the country that has fueled this excess capacity problem the most.
He stated, “Since demand in the Chinese domestic market cannot reach the capacity levels, pressure is being exerted on foreign markets.
We recently heard that China will reduce its production capacity. You can disregard this possibility. Although there is pressure on China in the global market in this direction, one of the biggest key performance indicators of the Chinese government and local administrations is employment, which will eventually diminish in the case of production stoppages. For this reason, I think they will continue production.”
Stating that the EU is also dealing with the energy price crisis caused by the Ukraine-Russia war and the gradually weakening demand for steel, Aardenburg argued that the EU should be resilient in solving these problems.
The EU, he said, which applies fairly fair protection measures, has pursued policies in line with principles such as ensuring a level playing field, ensuring material availability and not imposing a tax on steel imports, but these measures implemented so far have been inadequate.
He added that the EU now acknowledges how important the manufacturing sector is and Trump’s second term as president has increased the necessity to follow a new policy and the Steel and Metal Action Plan prepared in this direction will ensure that the EU protects its competitiveness and its own steel sector.
Laurent Taylor: Turkey is strategically positioned to benefit from regionalization trend
At the EUROMETAL Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, April 8, in cooperation with SteelOrbis and with nearly 400 participants, Laurent Taylor, senior trader at Manuchar Steel, shared official statistics regarding EU-Turkey steel trade and also his view regarding the strategic importance of this trade collaboration.
Starting his speech by pointing to the historical development of trade between Turkey and the EU, Mr. Taylor stated that for over 60-65 years there has been a strong partnership between these markets. “Today the trade in these two areas amounts to €206 billion.
With the worldwide trade of goods in total being €25 trillion in 2024, it represents more than 0,8%. Turkey is Europe’s fifth largest trade partner. On the other hand, Europe is the main export and import partner for Turkey. Over the past 10 years, the trade has also expanded by 80 percent,” he stated.
Commenting on the shift from globalization to regionalization, the Manuchar Steel official stated that over the past 40 years the Asian end-user market was not mature and cheap labour costs had driven production in the East.
However, the Asian end-user market has picked up strongly, labour costs in the region are not cheap anymore, and logistical challenges such as the Suez Canal blockage and Red Sea attacks severely impacted global trade. “If we look at the world today, we are not where we were 30 to 40 years ago.
Low labor costs are gone, we have a lot more barriers, and we have a lot more logistic challenges, which are making ships go all the way around and complicating things. So, following globalization, what we are noticing is regionalization. It is not about one single country like the US,” Taylor stated.
He underlined that Turkey is strategically positioned to benefit from the regionalization trend, while Turkish steel mills will certainly have a competitive advantage considering the high quality of their scrap-based production.
Mr. Taylor said that 60 percent of EU scrap exports account for just over half of Turkish scrap imports. “It highlights the importance of each side to the other. Looking into the trade between Europe and Turkey, both benefit from each other.
Europe is the key supplier of raw materials and also a good market for finished steel products. Global political instability has now increased even more thanks to Donald Trump.
We are seeing that there is going to be a greater and greater trend for regional closeness to be able to manage the fluctuations of prices in the world. So, it’s better to buy from your neighbor than to go all the way to the other side of the world,” he commented.
Tolga Yalgı: Polarization in global markets makes cost-competitiveness more challenging
Speaking at the EUROMETAL Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, April 8, in cooperation with SteelOrbis, Tolga Yalgı, CEO of Turkish steel producer Tatmetal, informed participants about the company’s investments and shared his opinions regarding global market developments.
Stating that Tatmetal is continuing its strategic growth in domestic and foreign markets and its investments in technology, Mr. Yalgı said that they shipped nearly one million metric tons of coated products to foreign markets in 2024.
He also stated that, with the commissioning of new cold rolling and galvanizing lines with an annual capacity of 1.5 million metric tons, they are now able to produce annealed and coated products in different sizes.
“With this investment, we are now able to produce coated products with thicknesses of 0.24 mm to 4 mm and widths of 800 mm to 1,650 mm with high quality.
Thus, we can provide higher standards and faster service to the white goods and automotive sectors,” he said. On the other hand, he stated that they also have serious investments in the energy sector. “11 of our wind turbines have started generating energy.
When they are fully operational, our plant will have an installed capacity of 66 megawatts and will produce 200 million kilowatt/hours of energy per year.
The solar power plant at our factory will also be completed this year and we will be producing an additional 180 million kilowatt/hours of electricity per year, meeting all our needs with green energy. We also expect our new 50-megawatt wind power plant to be commissioned at the beginning of 2026,” he said.
The Tatmetal CEO also discussed the risks, uncertainties and recent developments in the global market. He said that the new import taxes announced by the US, and the restrictions imposed by the EU on the origin of raw materials being processed, besides the current antidumping and quota practices, will create serious difficulties in terms of export competitiveness.
“The reshaping of global commercial, military, and political alliances brings new polarizations. These polarizations also cause changes in the availability and prices of raw materials. Accordingly, it becomes difficult to compete,” he said.
He also underlined that the starting point of these difficulties may have resulted from China, noted that the country has transformed from a country that produces low-priced products with its industrialization, cheap labor costs, state support and incentives into a global actor that challenges the global system, producing advanced technology.
Referring to the EU’s moves in the global market, Yalgı said, “Despite the EU imposing additional taxes on certain products imported from China, trade between the EU and China has increased continuously in the past 10 years.
The EU’s harsh protectionist measures against China’s breakthrough in the electric vehicle sector and China’s retaliation against the EU on certain products have marked the beginning of new trade relations between the two markets.
These developments are important for Turkey, which exports to the EU and imports the most from China.”
EUROMETAL & YISAD Steel Conference brings flat steel sector together in Istanbul
At the EUROMETAL Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, April 8, in cooperation with SteelOrbis and with over 400 participants, Metin Tayfun İşeri, chairman of Turkey’s Association of Flat Steel Exporters and Manufacturers (YISAD), and EUROMETAL president Alexander Julius made the opening speeches.
Mr. İşeri started his speech by drawing attention to the changes in the global steel and iron market. He stated that, during US President Donald Trump’s first administration in 2018, a new era in global steel and iron trading began with the introduction of the Section 232 tariffs, resulting in a switch to protectionism from free trade.
Mr. İşeri said that, after Trump, the Biden administration granted exemptions and exceptions under the Section 232 tariffs. However, during the Biden administration, the US imported 27 million mt of steel, 3 million mt of which were subject to tariffs, whereas the remainder entered the country under exemptions.
The YISAD official underlined that, during the same period, Turkey only exported 300,000 mt of steel to the US while paying tariffs, representing 10 percent of the total steel imports of the US, and became the most punished country.
Following all these developments, Trump has now removed all exemptions and exceptions and imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel imports from all countries.
According to İşeri, this is not bad news for Turkey as the new tariffs have leveled the playing field. He concluded his speech by saying that the direction of world trade will become clearer in the coming period.
Meanwhile, Alexander Julius, president of the European Federation of Associations of Steel, Tube and Metal Distributors (EUROMETAL), stated that, even though the new tariffs imposed by US President Trump have created chaos in the global markets, EU steelmakers consider these challenges to be positive.
According to Mr. Julius, facing more and more challenges amid weaker steel demand in Europe, the European Commission has started to support the local manufacturing industry again following the new tariffs and has started to make the local steel industry more independent. “We have made clear the issue of tariffs on steel derivatives, namely, finished products.
This subject has to be addressed by the EC,” he stated. Julius underlined that the EU must first support its own green steel production before pushing the green transition goals on a global scale. EUROFER is working together with the European Steel Association (EUROFER) in this regard, he said, emphasizing the direct proportionality between manufacturing and steel demand.
The EUROMETAL official welcomed the new safeguard measures by the EU, such as the reduction of quotas, and said he hoped that these measures remain tightened until 2026, while the European Commission is expected to bring new measures to the table in July 2026.
He ended his presentation with inviting the participants to EUROMETALS’s 75th Anniversary meeting in Luxembourg on July 2-3 this year.
Thyssenkrupp breaks economic link with Hüttenwerke-Krupp Mannesmann
Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, subsidiary of German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp Steel, is breaking its economic link with Hüttenwerke-Krupp Mannesmann (HKM), the joint venture between Thyssenkrupp Steel, German steelmaker Salzgitter and French pipe manufacturer Vallourec.
The company has announced that it has decided to terminate the supply contract with HKM. As a result, Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe’s obligation to purchase around 2.5 million mt of steel per year will expire on December 31, 2032, at the latest.
Last year, Thyssenkrupp Steel had declared that it intended to divest its stake in HKM as part of its restructuring plan, while the negotiations with Hamburg-based CE Capital Partners on the sale of Thyssenkrupp shares in HKM failed, as SteelOrbis previously reported.
“Due to market conditions, we will have to reduce our production capacities in the long term from the current 11.5 million mt of steel to a shipping target of 8.7 to 9 million mt. The separation from HKM is therefore imperative for us in order to achieve a competitive cost position, to maintain our location in Duisburg-Nord, and to make Thyssenkrupp Steel economically robust and geared up for the future. Irrespective of the termination of the supply contract, the sale of the shares in HKM remains our preferred option. We are open to discussions with all serious interested parties,” Dennis Grimm, spokesman of the executive board of Thyssenkrupp Steel, said.
France’s metal industry output up 1.4 percent in Feb from Jan
France’s manufacturing output in February this year rose by 1.4 percent month on month, after declining by 0.5 percent in January this year, according to the statistics released by France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).
In the December-February quarter, France’s manufacturing output declined by 1.9 percent year on year and by 0.7 percent quarter on quarter.
In the given month, France’s production in manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, was up by 1.4 compared to January, after decreasing by 2.2 percent in the previous month.
On the other hand, in February production of France’s motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers industry grew by 1.8 percent on month-on-month basis after increasing by 7.2 percent on month-on-month basis in the previous month, while the output of the domestic construction industry grew by 1.6 percent month on month in the given month after going down by 3.7 percent in January compared to December. In the December-February quarter, output of the domestic construction industry was up by 0.9 percent compared to the previous quarter.
Europe ready for dialogue on tariffs with US, but also ready to use countermeasures
On Monday, EU leaders were scheduled to meet for the Foreign Affairs Council on trade to discuss US tariffs, its effects on the EU economy and a possible response.
A range of newly introduced tariffs in the US were targeting a substantial portion of the EU’s exports to the country worth €380 billion ($415 billion) per year.
“Some 70% of our total exports… are facing tariffs of 20% or 25%, or even higher when combined with existing Most Favoured Nation tariffs, such as the 27.5% duty on passenger cars,” EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said during a Foreign Affairs Council (Trade) press conference on April 7.
Even though the EU remains open to negotiations and considers the issue a priority, the bloc is also ready to respond with countermeasures.
“While the EU remains open to – and would strongly prefer – negotiation, we will not wait endlessly,” Sefcovic said.
Concerning steel and aluminium in particular, the European Commission “received valuable feedback from… Member States and 660 stakeholders,” and is working on a list of counter-measures. This list of measures, and the levels of proposed tariffs, were to be sent to member states on April 7, while a vote on them was set for April 9, with the final list to be adopted on April 15.
Any duties imposed on products will start on that day for the first set of measures, and on May 15 for the remainder, according to a European Commission press release.
No details on exact counter measures have yet revealed.
Regional sources suggested that rebalancing measures would include a mirror 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports from the US, as was suggested in March.
Trade background
On April 2, the US White House announced the country’s so-called “liberation” tariffs affecting every US trade partner, including the EU.
As a result, all EU-origin imports to the US were now faced with 20% blanket tariffs, affecting an already-struggling European manufacturing sector.
While no additional tariffs on steel were added at that time, the US had on March 12 imposed tariffs as high as 25% on imports of steel, aluminium, and certain products containing steel and aluminium, from the EU and other trading partners.
Exports to the US accounted for 16%, 2.5 million tonnes of the total of 15.8 million tonnes, of carbon steel exports from the EU in 2024.
Steel market stakeholders underlined the urgent need for the EU to propose new trade defense measures for steel, which would go beyond the existing safeguards, in order to address the potential deflection of exports from other major steel-producing countries into the EU market.
Europe’s steel sector remained the backbone of many regional economies, with approximately 500 production sites across 22 EU member states, the Commission said. According to EU data, the European steel sector contributes around €80 billion to the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) and supports more than 2.5 million jobs.
But declines in production volumes over recent years were also clear to see in the data. Steel production in the EU-27 was 129.50 million tonnes in 2024, according to the World Steel Association. Although this total was up by 2.6% from 2023, it was still down by 15.1% from the 152.50 million tonnes made in 2021.
“Capacity utilization rates are dramatically low across the EU,” a mill source in Europe said. “On average, it’s not higher than 70%, while imports’ share in consumption has been steadily moving up in recent years.”
EU imposes provisional duties on HRC imports from Japan, Egypt, Vietnam
The provisional duties are set to enter into force on April 7 and be valid for six months, according to the notice on the EU official journal.
The duty rates were slightly lower compared to those in the pre-disclosure document, which was made public on March 14.
For Egypt, the provisional duty rate on material from Ezz Steel and all other companies was set at 12.8%. In the pre-disclosure document, the rate was higher, at 15.6%
The highest duties were proposed for Japanese suppliers: 31.8% for Nippon Steel Corporation and all other companies (33% in pre-disclosure document), 31.1% for JFE Steel Corporation and Daido Steel Co., Ltd (32% in pre-disclosure document).Tokyo Steel received a comparatively low duty of 6.9%, the same as suggested in pre-disclosure document.
For Vietnam, provisional duties were confirmed at 12.1% for Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation and all other companies, with the exception of Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel Joint Company, which was not subjected to any rates.
No provisional duties were introduced on Indian companies, as was initially suggested in the March pre-disclosure document.
EU HRC prices firm on limited imports
Domestic HRC prices in Europe have been ticking up recently, mainly supported by limited availability of imports amid safeguards amendments and anti-dumping cases.
Sources, however, were worried that the current uptrend was only short-lived due to lack of real demand.
“European mills are well-booked for the second quarter and import availability is limited due to safeguards and anti-dumping measures. It’s a sellers’ market now, so prices are likely to keep ticking up,” a distributor in Northern Europe said.
Sources were worried about the long-term outlook, given the still-weak demand from key steel-using sectors and possible deterioration in demand from the already-struggling automotive sector, which is being affected by US tariffs.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €652.00 per tonne on Monday April 7, up by €0.17 per tonne from €651.83 per tonne on Friday April 4.
The Northern European index was up by €5.75 per tonne week on week and by €20.62 per tonne month on month.
UK steel sector relatively optimistic despite challenging landscape
Market participants at the event in Leeds, North Yorkshire, on Thursday April 3, discussed the extraordinarily tough times facing the UK’s steel industry and its associated supply chains, given the global slowdown and US president Donald Trump’s trade war with the rest of the world. Yet they still found some signs of a slight upturn in the latter half of 2025 and beyond.
Here, Fastmarkets outlines the five key insights from the NEASS/NASS steel meeting:
1- Closure of Scunthorpe expected, but still a concern
Recent news of the planned closure of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, the last remaining primary steelmaking plant in the UK, was a major topic of discussion at the one-day event.
One delegate said that while the closure of Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces was not a surprise, the switch to electric-arc furnace steelmaking was essential for “British Steel and the country” as a whole.
“With British Steel, the furnace was always going to shut one day – it’s been a given for a decade, but the politicians kept kicking the can down the road,” the delegate told Fastmarkets.
But one of the speakers at the event, Shay Eddy – commercial and technical director at steel fabrication specialist SC4 – warned that the loss of the UK’s last primary steelmaking facility should not be under-estimated.
“The thought of a G7 country not having a primary steel producer [is a matter] of national security,” Eddy said. “We have to be self-sufficient as far as we can.”
According to recent reports, British Steel’s Scunthorpe site could close within days – much sooner than initially expected – with its Chinese owner, Jingye, reportedly canceling key shipments of coal and iron ore to the plant. When pressed on the matter by Fastmarkets, the company simply said “no comment.”
2- Port capacity concerns amid UK steel producer uncertainty
Delegates raised concerns about future port capacity, warning that a potential rise in semi-finished and finished steel imports, which will be crucial to meeting domestic demand if Scunthorpe closes, could put a significant strain on the UK’s port infrastructure.
“It depends on what form it takes. Semi-finished products [for rerolling] are easy-to-handle cargoes, [but] we would struggle with [finished] coil and sections,” a port sector market participant said.
“There isn’t [port] capacity… to handle the volumes [that would be required] if we lose UK [primary steel production].”
A second port industry delegate said there had been a marked increase in imported steel – largely coil supplies for Tata Steel’s Port Talbot hot strip mill in South Wales – while steel export volumes have declined.
Tata Steel has continued operating its rolling mill since closing its blast furnaces last year and the company said it plans to build an EAF at the Port Talbot site as part of a £1.25 billion ($1.62 billion) green steel investment in partnership with the British government.
While major hub ports are currently experiencing strong demand, smaller ports are reportedly handling lower volumes, according to port industry market participants at the event.
Some delegates speculated that other commodities might need to be “booted out” to make room for additional steel cargoes if Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces are completely shut down – raising concerns about potential future bottlenecks across the UK port network.
3- Trump tariffs
Delegates were critical of Trump’s tariffs after the US imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium products entering the US on March 12, and subsequently extended that to all car imports on April 3.
A second delegate said the relationships Trump was “destroying” would “take years” to rebuild.
The latest 25% tariffs cancel out previous exemptions and quota arrangements with the UK and EU, as well as product-specific exemptions for steel not made in the US.
4- Solar remedy for sky-high energy costs?
Attendees also talked about the critical issue of “sky-high” energy costs for UK market participants, with energy prices in the UK significantly higher than in many other developed economies such as the European Union.
And the cost of electricity could become even more important to UK steelmakers whenproducers move to EAF production, which uses more electricity than the traditional blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace method.
However, the director of energy supplier Mypower Solar, Neil Stott, told delegates that solar power was a possible tool to curb production costs and reduce carbon footprints across the supply chain.
Stott said that a significant portion of annual electricity needs for a building – up to to 30-50% – could be met by installing solar panel systems on rooftops.
5- Rising demand for domestic steel scrap
The future uptick in the use of EAF-based steel production meant there would be an equal or greater increase in domestic demand for steel scrap, market participants said at the joint meeting, with feedstock for EAFs comprising of either scrap steel, direct reduced iron (DRI) or pig iron.
Around 80-90% of steel scrap is exported as Fastmarkets understands, but Tata’s plans for a 3-million-tonne-per-year EAF plant in Port Talbot set to be complete in late 2027 could lead to greater domestic demand for feedstock materials such as scrap.
One scrap metal industry participant said that conversations were taking place between government and industry players regarding ringfencing UK scrap for domestic needs in the future.
6- Small improvements expected in Q3, Q4
Despite the many challenges facing the UK steel industry, market participants expressed some optimism for the coming months, stressing that there will be “slight improvements” are expected in the second half of the year.
A third delegate spoke of positive sentiment and said market conditions would be fairly stable, while a coil market participant looked back at a challenging 2024 be was looking forward to “green shoots of recovery” later in 2025.