The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has expressed concern over the inflationary impact that the continued application of EU steel safeguard measures could have on European market prices, Kallanish notes.
In response to the European Commission’s new trade measure proposal, the association says it does no contest “the need for some level of protection for a commodity industry like steel”. ACEA director Sigrid de Vries notes: “But we feel that the parameters as proposed by the Commission go too far in ring-fencing the European market. We need to find a better balance between the needs of European producers and users of steel in this measure.”
European carmakers source around 90% of their steel needs in Europe. However, the sharp reduction of import quotas and the doubling of the out-of-quota tariff to 50% would significantly limit the ability to ease market pressure through imports. Moreover, the introduction of a new rule of origin based on the “melt and pour” principle would further restrict import flows while creating a substantial administrative burden for European users of imported steel products.
Despite a strong reliance on domestic steel, the car sector still depends on specific imported grades and qualities. Quotas for automotive steel have been consistently exhausted within weeks throughout the seven years of the current safeguard regime, ACEA warns. It urges the Commission to recognise the complexity of applying the “melt and pour” rule of origin across “deep, global” supply chains, where tracing the production route of steel is often impractical and risks disrupting established manufacturing processes.
Meanwhile, according to Transport & Environment (T&E), Europe’s leading clean transport and energy group, a leaked position paper from ACEA shows that European carmakers are asking for a series of loopholes in the EU car CO2 law. These changes would cut in half the EU’s target of selling only zero-emission cars by 2035.
ACEA is allegedly calling for more than ten exemptions, including allowing the use of alternative fuels and changing how zero-emission cars are counted. The association also wants the EU to stop updating how it measures emissions from plug-in hybrids.
T&E says that scrapping the 2027 “utility factor” for plug-in hybrids would reduce electric car sales by about 10%. Extra credits for cleaner production methods, certain technologies, and counting small EVs as more than one sale, with bonus credits for those made in Europe, would further weaken the overall target.
Natalia Capra France
