The Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) presented by the European Commission on Wednesday has been received with mixed sentiment by steelmakers and significant steel users.
Outokumpu has welcomed the proposal to increase demand for clean products. “The Industrial Accelerator Act signals a decisive shift toward an industrial strategy that integrates climate policy with industrial competitiveness,” it says in a statement.
However, the stainless steelmaker is calling for a clear “Made-in-EU” requirement to also include steel, and to introduce an EU low-carbon steel label.
Meanwhile, Germany’s steel federation WV Stahl, criticises the 25% low-emission steel quota for public procurement for not requiring domestic European-made steel.
“The IAA does create demand for low-emission steel, but does not facilitate structural demand for domestic steel production in the EU,” the federation notes.
For others, the IAA’s local content requirements, which impact concrete and aluminium, though not steel, are too high.
The association of mechanical engineering and machinery builders, VDMA, says the local content element is overweighed in the draft, and will not help the market’s structural weakness or the image loss of technological leadership.
“A ‘Buy European’ approach is justified only if security issues are concerned,” Kallanish learns from VDMA’s statement.
The association does welcome that the mandatory quota of green steel in public projects remains limited in the policy.
VDMA points at the contradiction that compulsory green steel usage means a burden for suppliers of technology, which itself is indispensable to achieving Europe’s climate targets.
