The changes primarily target product category 17 – angles, shapes and sections of iron or non-alloy steel . They are intended to restore balance in the European steel market by reintroducing country-specific quotas and changing the controversial import cap.
In 2022, following the disruption of Ukrainian steel exports due to Russia’s invasion of the country, the EU had “globalized” quotas for this category to prevent supply shortages.
But a 15% per-country cap introduced in the latest safeguards review in March 2025, intended to prevent market dominance by individual exporters, ended up restricting access for key trading partners such as the UK, Turkey and South Korea, whose historical trade levels exceeded that threshold.
The new regulation removes the 15% cap, reinstates individual quotas for those countries, and reintroduces a residual quota for all other exporters. To ensure fair competition, a new 40% cap per country will apply within the residual quota, the Commission said in a notice seen by Fastmarkets.
Indeed, starting from 2023, market source have noted sharp rises in the deliveries of steel product category 17 [HS codes 7216 31 10, 7216 31 90, 7216 32 11, 7216 32 19, 7216 32 91, 7216 32 99, 7216 33 10, 7216 33 9] from non-traditional suppliers – notably China – to the EU.
For example, in 2023, the East Asian country delivered 16,093 tonnes of steel angle/sections to the bloc, sharply up from just 692 tonnes in 2022, Global Trade Tracker (GTT) data showed.
In January-May 2025, deliveries from China rocketed to 41,933 tonnes. In contrast, for the entire year of 2024, China shipped 20,451 tonnes of steel angles/sections to the region.
The Commission also announced that, due to the mid-quarter implementation of a new regulation, available volumes for the third quarter of 2025 (July–September) will be pro-rated based on unused quota volumes as of August 1, to ensure a smooth transition.
In addition, the regulation removes an “unnecessary” cap on category 4B (Metallic Coated Sheets) and corrects several technical inaccuracies.
Notably, for category 4B – hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) – the cap was set at 20% in March 2025, Fastmarkets reported.
HDG is widely used in the automotive and construction industries. Errors in tariff-rate quote distribution had caused oversaturation or under-utilization by some exporters, Fastmarkets understands.
The European Commission said that these adjustments were meant to preserve historical trade flows while maintaining safeguards against import surges that could harm EU industry.
The regulation was immediately binding and applicable in all EU Member States, and shall apply from August 1.
