EU electric arc furnace-based steelmakers are pushing for the European Commission to introduce some form of limitation on scrap exports, says Giuseppe Pasini, chief executive of European long products supplier Feralpi Group.
Scrap demand is expected to continue increasing in Europe due to the investments of many steelmakers into new EAF technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, Pasini confirmed during a Siderweb webinar on Tuesday attended by Kallanish. This trend is in line with the one seen globally, particularly in China. As a consequence, European steelmakers need to unify to further limit exports of their raw material: scrap.
“Italy is a net importer of scrap and it is already suffering from the increased competition existing globally,” Pasini said.
Talking broadly about trade barriers, Pasini nevertheless added that any measures need to respond to the requirements of the industry. He noted, for example, the obvious problems created by the low availability of coils in the EU market and the need therefore for the European Commission to respond by opening up coil imports further.
The Commission is yet to announce if it will extend EU safeguard measures beyond June. Meanwhile, European steelmakers association Eurofer is lobbying to create an export barrier for scrap from Europe.
Emanuele Norsa Italy
