Italian steel trade association Assofermet is calling for a significant simplification of European bureaucracy and urges the EU to immediately accompany CBAM, melt and pour rules and new safeguard regulations, with tools to preserve the competitiveness and capacity of steel processing and end-user companies, Kallanish notes.
The manufacturing sector needs guarantees of adequate supply options and, above all, a serious impact assessment of the quotas, duties and CBAM across the entire industrial supply chain, the association says in a note.
It adds that in the current context of severe instability and persistent tensions, the fragile competitiveness of EU manufacturing cannot be sacrificed in the name of a protection strategy designed solely for the upstream segment of the industry.
“The core problem lies in the overall balance of the measures adopted by the EU. A policy that protects only upstream production, without providing equivalent support for companies that process and use that steel, risks generating distortive and disincentivising effects,” the note states.
Downstream companies, including processors, end-users, distributors and traders, as well as the metalworking sector, are facing a disproportionate rise in raw material costs, a progressive reduction in sourcing options, and a growing administrative and bureaucratic workload that is increasingly difficult to understand.
“If the EU loses market share in global manufacturing markets and if the continent’s competitiveness is further squeezed by an accumulation of massive regulatory constraints, steel producers themselves will inevitably suffer in the medium to long term, as orders from their own customers inexorably decline, resulting in yet another reduction in steel consumption and demand,” Assofermet warns.
Concerns have been growing in the flat service centre segment over the ability of European manufacturers to absorb the rising prices.
Last year, the association asked the European Commission to rethink the current CBAM framework, warning that the mechanism risks generating severe disruption for EU industry.
In a letter addressed to commission vice-president for prosperity and industrial strategy Stéphane Séjourné and trade and economic security commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, the association requested a temporary exemption from CBAM certificate purchases for all steel imports cleared from 1 January 2026 until five months after the publication of the final Benchmark and Default Value parameters.
Author: Natalia Capra
