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Jul 1, 2026, 01:34Jul 1, 2026, 01:34
To protect the European steel industry, stricter rules for imports have been in effect since Wednesday. Now only 18.3 million tons of steel can be imported duty-free per year, about half as much as before (47 percent).
At the same time, the European Union has doubled the tariff on quantities that exceed this quota to 50 percent. This is intended to prevent large quantities of cheaper steel from being imported. Within the EU, Germany has by far the largest steel industry.
Significantly more steel is produced worldwide than is needed. According to figures from the EU Commission, this excess capacity is currently 620 million tonnes, and is expected to rise to 721 million tonnes by 2027. That would be five times as much steel as the EU consumes annually. The massive increase in US import tariffs on steel last year has further increased pressure on the European market.
China, India and Turkey are among the countries from which cheap steel is exported. This is due to lower energy prices, but also government support.
Association hopes for return of 15 million tons
The European Steel Industry Association (Eurofer) expects the new trade measure could bring 15 million tonnes of capacity utilization back to Europe. In the past seven years, more than 30 million tons of production have been lost, said Eurofer General Director Axel Eggert.
Eggert welcomed the change, but at the same time spoke of it as a first step. As a result, energy costs in Europe would have to be reduced, among other things. European industry must become internationally competitive again – but at the same time transform into a climate-neutral industry.
Which countries will primarily be imported from in the future?
Half of the available duty-free quota is reserved for steel from countries with which the EU has a free trade agreement, as shown in the relevant implementing regulation. According to the EU Commission, 80 percent of steel imports into the EU so far come from countries with free trade agreements. The EU is guaranteeing several of these countries a certain quota, which should be proportional to the previous import volumes – including Great Britain, Turkey and Ukraine, as a senior EU official said.
The other half, also 9.15 million tonnes, is available to everyone, regardless of whether the countries of origin have a trade agreement with the EU or not. China, for example, has no such agreement with the EU.
The industry is suffering
According to Commission figures, the EU is the third largest steel producer in the world. Around 300,000 people are directly employed in this industrial sector. But the industry is suffering from the crisis in customer sectors, especially the automotive industry. In addition, there are, among other things, the costs of converting to more climate-friendly steel production. The effectiveness of the new rules will be reviewed every three years in the future.
The Steel Association called the new instrument indispensable. Now the EU Commission still has to close regulatory gaps: the scope of application should apply to all steel products and also be extended to downstream steel-intensive products so that the protection cannot be circumvented, she demanded.
The association argued that it is particularly important to introduce a melted and poured certificate, which determines the origin of a steel product based on where the steel was actually melted and cast. “It is important that the tariff quotas are allocated to the actual country where the steel is produced,” demanded Managing Director Kerstin Maria Rippel. (sda/dpa)