US steel tariffs will be a blow to steelmakers in Germany and the wider European Union, says German steel federation WV Stahl.
The measure, if implemented, “will hit on various levels, and at a time that has been hard enough already,” says Gunnar Groebler, the federation’s president and chief executive of Salzgitter AG.
According to WV Stahl, the US is Europe’s biggest single overseas market for steel, taking 20% of the Union’s imports. Germany alone accounts for a volume of 1 million tonnes/year of mostly specialised steel products, Kallanish learns.
“The EU must now act quickly and systematically,” Groebler says. He highlights measures needed by the EU to protect the domestic market against trade flows that will now be redirected from North America to Europe, which is already hurting from excessive imports. Groebler also proposes talks with the USA to establish a bilateral agreement on steel and aluminium between the two regions.
Germany’s largest steelmaker, thyssenkrupp, is playing down the immediate threat of US measures on its own business, according to press reports. The group’s steelmaking division, tk Steel, operates largely in Europe, while trading division tk Materials Services, as well as its automotive activities, have locations in the USA.
The largest German sector that is dependent on imports into the US is mechanical engineering, itself a big user sector for steel. Its association VDMA already warned of grave consequences when initial tariffs were announced against Canada and Mexico.
“Many companies have built up their value chains within the USMCA free trade zone and have made considerable investments in the production of machinery and equipment in both the USA and Mexico,” VDMA says. It points out that the US “is the largest investment location for our industry outside the European Union.” VDMA member company investments are responsible for more than 100,000 American jobs, it says.
Christian Koehl Germany
