EUROMETAL re-invited by Mrs Von der Leyen to high-level EU Consultation on U.S. Tariffs Impact on Steel
EUROMETAL has received an official invitation from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to participate in a high-level virtual meeting on Monday, 7 April 2025, to discuss the impact of U.S. tariffs on the EU steel and aluminium sectors.
The invitation follows the recent announcement by the U.S. administration to impose tariffs on steel, aluminium, and derivative products, including those originating from the European Union. This development is expected to have significant consequences for global trade and directly affect Europe’s metals industry and supply chains.
In response, the European Commission has launched a revised Steel and Metals Action Plan, effective from 1 April 2025, aimed at reinforcing the EU’s trade defense mechanisms. A new trade measure to replace existing steel safeguards is also under preparation for implementation from 1 July 2026.
The upcoming virtual meeting will serve as a strategic dialogue with key industry stakeholders, aiming to: gather insights on the real and anticipated impact of U.S. tariffs on EU steel and aluminium, explore sector proposals for an effective EU response, and help shape the next phase of EU trade defense policies.
EUROMETAL welcomes this initiative and will actively contribute to the discussion, continuing its mission to represent the interests of the European steel distribution, processing, and trading sectors.
We look forward to engaging with EU decision-makers and other industry leaders to ensure that Europe’s steel value chain remains strong, competitive, and protected.
Italy, France, Slovakia seek to further simplify CBAM
Italy, France and Slovakia are urging the European Commission to simplify the Carbon Border Adjustment Measure (CBAM) and resolve the administrative challenges that come with its implementation.
The complex structure of this system could cause delays and increases in management and operational costs for European businesses.
“A simplification of the regulatory framework is needed to provide operators with clearly defined and simplified technical rules. Basing the CBAM on pre-defined emission values for upstream and downstream sectors could significantly simplify reporting requirements,” says the AoB document requested by France, Italy and Slovakia and obtained by Kallanish.
The paper suggests an exemption for small importers and a thorough review of downstream carbon leakage as well as carbon leakage in exports. The CBAM regulation now applies to the six pilot sectors and 20 neighbouring downstream products. However more sectors and downstream products may be at risk of carbon leakage due to the phase-out of free EU ETS allowances.
CBAM should cover downstream sectors and goods at risk of carbon leakage by the end of the transition period. At present, it does not include any measures to avoid carbon leakage from exports.
The EC is to consider the extension of CBAM to indirect emissions under the condition that it does not compromise decarbonisation efforts and to consider the impact of the mechanism on the competitiveness of the EU industry.
“The Commission is required to submit a report by 2028 on the impact of the CBAM, notably on carbon leakage to exports, resource shuffling, and an evaluation of the overall application of the regulation. Such a report should be anticipated to the end of the transition period. It should propose, if necessary, appropriate and proportionate measures to prevent carbon leakages in support of exporting industries, by maintaining, among other measures, targeted free ETS allowances for exportations to ensure a level playing field,” the paper concludes.
Earlier this month the Commission published its Steel and Metals Action Plan confirming it would issue a legislative proposal for CBAM adjustments by year-end.
Natalia Capra France
EU to delay first set of countermeasures against US tariffs until mid-April
The measures, announced on March 12, cover a wide range of agricultural and industrial goods including potentially some wood products, pulp, paper and board.
The first set involves allowing the suspension of existing countermeasures against the US from 2018 and 2020 to lapse. They include a 25% tariff on US corn imports into the EU.
This was initially set to happen on April 1 after the current suspension ends but will now likely be postponed to mid-April to coincide with a second package of measures on which the Commission is currently consulting, Šefčovič said.
“In the light of the recent announcement that the US is planning to introduce additional tariffs on April 2, we are now considering to align the timing of the two sets of EU countermeasures, so we can consult with member states on both lists simultaneously,” Šefčovič told a joint hearing of the Committee on International Trade on Thursday.
“It also gives us extra time for negotiations to try to find a mutually agreeable resolution. As a result, all the EU’s countermeasures that were announced on March 12 would in that case take effect in mid-April,” he said.
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Steel imports to EU, US fall in 2025; all eyes on April 2
The move to delay tariffs was announced after the US imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports earlier this month.
In the first two months of 2025, imports and exports of steel products between the US and EU logged declines.
In January, the US exported 5,237 tonnes of steel to the EU, down by 7.20% from 5,682 tonnes of steel exported in December, data from the US International Trade Administration (ITA) showed.
In February, the EU applied to export 238,854 tonnes of steel to the US, down by 41.8% from the 410,742 tonnes of steel imported in January, according to the ITA data.
Market participants globally are also now closely tracking April 2 — what US President Donald Trump has called “Liberation Day” — when a slew of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on goods coming to the US take effect.
The US President has also said new, higher tariffs on goods such as lumber, autos and copper will be announced then.
It remains unclear whether the tariffs will stack Trump’s Section 232 tariffs and specifically what goods will be subject to the broader tariffs, market participants previously told Fastmarkets.
Trump’s tariff policies are expected to slow economic growth in the US and globally, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported on Monday March 17.
The risk of broader increases in trade barriers could weaken global growth more than previously expected, with inflation now remaining above target for longer in many economies, the report said.
European Commission unveiled the Steel and Metals Action Plan
Today, the European Commission unveiled its Steel and Metals Action Plan, aimed at securing the competitiveness, resilience, and decarbonization of Europe’s steel and metals industries. This initiative addresses global trade pressures, high energy costs, and the need for sustainability investments, reinforcing the sector’s strategic importance to automotive, clean tech, and defense industries.
The plan focuses on ensuring affordable energy access by supporting tax flexibility and promoting the increased use of renewable hydrogen to reduce production costs. To prevent carbon leakage, the Commission will strengthen CBAM with anti-circumvention measures and extend its scope to downstream steel and aluminum products.
In response to global overcapacity and unfair trade practices, the Commission will introduce new long-term steel safeguards and assess the implementation of a “melted and poured rule” to reinforce fair competition. Recycling targets for steel and aluminum will also be increased, with potential trade measures on metal scrap to ensure sustainable supply.
To support industrial decarbonization, the Commission has announced a €100 billion Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, with a €1 billion pilot auction in 2025 aimed at electrification and low-carbon steel production. Additionally, the plan emphasizes the protection of 2.6 million jobs in the steel and metals industry through labor policies that support fair transitions and skills development.
“The steel industry has always been a core engine for European prosperity. With today’s Action Plan, we are offering concrete solutions for a thriving European steel industry”, stated Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
Earlier this morning, Alexander Julius, President of EUROMETAL, was featured on BBC News to discuss the EU Steel Action Plan. He highlighted the crucial role of steel distribution and trade, the challenges posed by new trade policies, and the importance of balancing competitiveness with sustainability in the sector.
Commission’s Action Plan to secure a competitive and decarbonised steel and metals industry in Europe
EU to reinstate rebalancing measures to combat renewed US Section 232 tariffs
Those rebalancing measures include a mirror 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports from the US.
In addition, Brussels will impose further countermeasures on the US, targeting approximately €18 billion-worth ($19.6 billion) of goods, which will then apply together with the reimposed measures from 2018.
“The objective is to ensure that the total value of the EU measures corresponds to the increased value of trade affected by the new US tariffs,” a Commission press release read.
“Since the new US tariffs are significantly broader in scope and affect a significantly higher value of European trade, the Commission launched on March 12 a process to impose additional countermeasures on the US,” the Commission said.
The consultation process for additional countermeasures proposed the targeting of industrial products including steel and aluminium products, home appliances, household tools, plastics, wood products, and more.
The countermeasures were expected to enter into force by mid-April.
Trade background
On March 12, 2025, the US imposed 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium products to include those from the EU.
The imposition of tariffs by the US was expected to lead to trade being diverted to new destinations, with steel products flooding toward markets including the EU, undermining local steelmakers and distorting competition.
“[US] President [Donald] Trump’s ‘America First’ policy threatens to be the final nail in the coffin of the European steel industry,” Dr Henrik Adam, president of European steel association Eurofer, said on March 12.
“If European steel disappears, so too does [the] European automotive [industry], European security and defense, energy infrastructure, transportation and others. What is at stake is European sovereignty,” he added.
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“Under the first Trump administration [in the US], we already witnessed the huge effect of Section 232. EU steel exports to the US decreased by more than 1 million tonnes, while of every three tonnes of steel deflected from the US market because of Section 232, two tonnes arrived in the EU,” he said.
“The US tariffs will probably lead to greater global trade imbalances, with steel that would have been shipped to the US going instead to European markets,” Adam said. “The EU was already contending with cheap steel imports – primarily from Asia, North Africa and the Middle East – and the US decision could exacerbate this situation, further damaging the European steel sector.”
The total amount of carbon steel imports to the EU in 2024 was more than 26.36 million tonnes, up by 6.4% compared with 24.78 million tonnes in 2023, Eurofer statistics showed.
At the same time, apparent steel consumption in the bloc amounted to 127 million tonnes in 2024, down by 2.3% from 130 million tonnes in 2023 and lower than during the 2020 pandemic year, when it was 129 million tonnes.
“EU steel production, which lost 9 million tonnes of capacity and 18,000 jobs in 2024 alone, is at even greater risk,” Eurofer said. “There is also the prospect that yet more steel will be deflected to the EU market if additional reciprocal tariffs are imposed by the US.”
Consequently, Eurofer has urged the European Commission to give an adequate response to the US measures to protect the struggling EU steel sector.
“It is crucial that the revised steel EU safeguard measures are robust and effective, to respond immediately and decisively to counter further deflection of the steel imports flooding the EU market. The time has come,” Adam said.
The EU’s existing steel safeguard measures have been extended several times, and were recently subject to a review, with proposed adjustments revealed on March 11. These adjusted measures were expected to come into force in April.
EU proposes further 3-year exemption from steel safeguard measures, anti-dumping duties for Ukraine
Ukraine’s exemption from EU safeguard measures, initially granted in June 2022 after the Russian invasion, has been renewed twice already – in June 2023 and June 2024.
Unlike previous extensions, the new exemption will apply for three more years and, if approved by the European Council and Parliament, will come into force on June 6.
The Commission said it is also “currently working on a longer-term solution [to] provide economic certainty and a stable framework for trade to both Ukraine and the EU.”
Europe is Ukraine’s largest trading partner, with significant steel exports to countries such as Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Greece, and Moldova.
The news of the proposed extension comes amid an ongoing review of EU safeguard measures, which was announced on December 17, 2024 and is expected to conclude by March 31.
European Commission to postpone sales of CBAM certificates to 2027
One result is that steel importers will no longer be obliged to purchase CBAM certificates quarterly in 2026, as was planned originally.
The amendments were presented as part of the Clean Industrial Deal proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday. This was intended to serve as a framework to tailor action in Europe’s energy-intensive industries, including steel and metals, and the clean tech sector, to support decarbonization initiatives.
The official version of CBAM amendments complied with the changes, which were leaked into the public space earlier this week.
But the delay to the beginning of CBAM certificate sales will not remove the financial burden related to CO2 emissions, it will only shift it to the next year, Fastmarkets understands.
“The changes may relieve some immediate pressure, but the financial risk exposure stays the same,” Louis Redshaw, chief executive officer of Redshaw Advisors, said. “Companies will still be [liable] for 2026 emissions but won’t need to fully account for them until 2027. This delay doesn’t remove the financial burden, it just shifts when it [will become effective].”
Another change was the introduction of a new annual de minimis threshold to exempt small importers from the CBAM requirements. This meant that only companies importing more than 50 tonnes (or 100 tonnes of embedded CO2) of net mass of goods, covered by the legislation, will have to comply.
But representatives of the steel and metals industries commented that this change would make little difference because their shipment volumes were usually well above the threshold.
European steel association Eurofer also said that, although the proposed Clean Industrial Deal and the amendments in the CBAM have managed to identify the right problems, they offered only partial solutions.
The association expected that more measures would be included in the Steel and Metals Action Plan, which was expected to be announced on March 4 during the Strategic Dialogue on Steel, organized by the European Commission.
European Commission publishes Clean Industrial Deal, labels steel emissions
The European Commission has published its long-awaited Clean Industrial Deal. Besides the installation of 100 GW per year of renewable electricity till 2030 and over €100 billion ($105 billion) financing to support low-emission manufacturing, this will include a voluntary carbon intensity label for steel products starting from 2025.
The plan focuses on six core business drivers: affordable energy, lead markets, financing, circularity and access to materials, global markets and international partnerships, skills enhancement, and simplification, Kallanish notes.
The Affordable Energy Action Plan will lower energy costs, also tackling volatile prices by making Power Purchase Agreements more attractive for industrial users.
The EU will introduce sustainability, resilience and European preference criteria in EU public procurement for strategic sectors, aiming to reach 40% of domestically produced key components of clean tech products on the EU market.
The Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act will develop a voluntary label on the carbon intensity of industrial products, while avoiding duplication, based on a simple methodology with ETS data and building on the CBAM methodology. The Commission will start with steel in 2025, based on existing reporting from industry. The labels “will allow industrial producers to distinguish the carbon intensity of their industrial production and to benefit from targeted incentives,” the Commission says.
The Commission will simplify state aid rules to give Member States more flexibility to support decarbonisation. An Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, aiming for €100 billion in funding, will be based on available funds in the Innovation Fund, additional revenue resulting from parts of the ETS as well as the revision of InvestEU.
It wants to ensure lower prices and higher availability for critical raw materials by organising joint purchases – through an EU Critical Raw Material Centre. It is also eyeing increasing the circular material use rate from 11.8% today to 24% by 2030.
The Circular Economy Act in 2026 will enable the free movement of circular products, secondary raw materials and waste. It will provide incentives to increase the use of metal scrap and mandatory digitalisation of demolition permits and pre-demolition audits.
The Commission also wants to give European companies better access to third markets and essential inputs via trade agreements and Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships, which will diversify sources of supply.
A new Union of Skills will meanwhile ensure a skilled workforce for strategic industries, promote quality jobs and support workers in transition.
Lastly but crucially, regulation will be simplified. The aim is to speed up permitting for industrial decarbonisation projects, simplify state aid rules by 2025 to accelerate clean energy roll-out and support industrial decarbonisation, and enhance coordination between EU and national policies to reduce red tape and leverage the scale of the Single Market.
“Today, Europe accelerates on its twin decarbonisation and reindustrialisation. This pact aims to position Europe as a world leader in clean industries – from boosting our production ‘made-in-Europe’, to beefing up regulatory and financial support to our most strategic industrial supply chains. It also secures our unique European model of setting decarbonisation not only as an environmental goal, but also as our economic growth strategy,” says Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy.
Adam Smith Poland
European Commission schedules Steel Dialogue, reinforces strategic role
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will host a Strategic Dialogue on Steel on 4 March, Kallanish notes.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Commission reinforced that steel is a strategic sector, saying it plays a central role in the EU’s broader strategic autonomy.
The meeting is anticipated to bring together steel manufacturers, raw material suppliers, off-takers, and representatives of social partners and civil society. EUROMETAL will be represented by its president, Alexander Julius, the association says.
This comes ahead of the dedicated Steel and Metals Action, which Executive Vice-President Séjourné has been tasked with delivering in the spring. Feedback from the Steel Dialogue and related wider consultation will be fed into this dedicated plan.
“The steel industry is a key sector of our European single market. At the same time this industry is of utmost importance in our fight against climate change,” von der Leyen notes. “The Strategic Dialogue will help develop a concrete Action Plan to tackle the unique challenges of this sector in the clean industrial transition. We want to ensure that the European steel industry is both competitive and sustainable in the long-term.”
“Europe has a plan for its industry: we must produce more, we must produce clean, and we must produce European,” says Séjourné. “This starts with our most strategic sectors: steel is one of them. We must protect our steel sector from unfair foreign competition and boost our own production of clean European steel.”
Key Strategic Dialogue discussion points will include how to enhance competitiveness and circularity, drive the clean transition, decarbonisation, and electrification, ensure fair trade relations and an international level playing field. The Commission will inform and consult with the Council and European Parliament throughout the Dialogue process.
Proposals include the joint purchasing of raw materials on behalf of interested companies, which could ensure diversification of supplies, and a Circular Economy Act to incentivise the use of secondary scrap material in manufacturing. Also discussed will be the use of guarantees and risk reduction instruments to facilitate conclusion of long-term power purchase agreements, and to accelerate the uptake of hydrogen.
To speed up investment, the meeting will also discuss the creation of a dedicated financing mechanism for industrial decarbonisation based on the auctions-as-a-service model.
On the foreign trade front, global overcapacity is expected to reach 630 million tonnes in 2026. This means “it is essential to make more efficient use of anti-dumping or anti-subsidy duties to prevent that our market becomes an export destination for state-induced excess steel production,” the Commission says.
In addition, the safeguard measures for steel currently in place are set to expire by June 2026. The Commission will define a long-term solution to replace those measures in light of global non-market overcapacity, it concludes.
Adam Smith Poland
CBAM 2.0: Is the EU making compliance easier or just postponing the pain?
Changes have been proposed to Europe’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that would simplify some processes, and reduce its scope, Kallanish learns from an obtained leaked draft amendment.
While CBAM will still come into force in January 2026, the requirement to purchase certificates will be delayed and payment will be simplified. Certificates will now need to be purchased from February 2027 to cover the previous year, removing the obligation to purchase certifications on a quarterly basis for the first year.
Gabriel Rozenberg, chief executive of software company Cbamboo, says that while the definitive CBAM period will still start in 2026, there is an easing up in term of cash flow and bureaucracy.
Other changes proposed will see more companies now exempt from CBAM’s scope, with the thresholds at 50 tonnes/year or less than 100 t/y of embodied CO2 emissions of imported goods. This move is believed to remove around 90% of companies from the mechanism’s scope.
EU documents show that for the first year of CBAM’s transitional phase, which only required reporting, iron and steel accounted for 69% of overall tonnages reported across targeted sectors. Given the large tonnages handled by steel importers, the minimal threshold exemption is unlikely to benefit this sector.
“The European Commission is tightening the focus on the big emissions that CBAM is designed to tamp down on,” Rozenberg notes.
He adds that some sub processes and side processing of metals and goods that have minimal emissions associated with them are now out of scope.
This consists of finishing processes that are carried out by separate installations not covered by the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The embedded emissions of those production processes, which are relatively low, should be excluded from the system boundaries of the calculation of emissions, the document says.
Meanwhile, penalties have also been increased for deliberate non-compliance, rising by 3-5 times.
“This is all about refining and focusing CBAM – making it stronger and clearer, while cutting out a lot of bureaucracy where that would have a low impact. CBAM will go ahead: on time, as planned, in January 2026,” Rozenberg adds.
Meanwhile, Dan Maleski, senior environmental markets advisor and CBAM lead at Redshaw advisors, tells Kallanish that while the changes may relieve some immediate pressure, the financial risk exposure stays the same. “Companies will still be on the hook for 2026 emissions but won’t need to fully account for them until 2027. This delay doesn’t remove the financial burden, it just shifts when it hits.”
“[This] grossly simplifies an overly-complex and burdensome regulation for importers of smaller quantities of goods: a positive development that made the EU CBAM appear overly-bureaucratic,” he adds. “The proposal maintains a proportionate approach to internalising the external cost of carbon pollution despite the threat of global border tariff escalations.”
Maleski also notes the uncertainty surrounding US President Donald Trump’s threats of reciprocal tariffs and how this will impact CBAM. The EU industry’s existing direct subsidy – EUA free allocation – will be reduced via free allocation reductions, so that a level playing field is baked into the mechanism.
Carrie Bone UK