EUROFER Warns of Severe Crisis in EU Steel Industry

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has warned of serious crisis in EU steel industry, mainly on account of existing challenging market conditions including spiraling import volumes, escalated raw material costs, rising carbon costs and slowing economic growth. The above factors have already started to affect steel producers in the region, resulting in layoffs and idling of facilities.

According to Axel Eggert, Director General, EUROFER, the steel industry has been on a path of revival in 2017 and 2018. Around 7,000 jobs returned to the sector in 2017, followed by another 2,000 in 2018. This had taken the total steel sector employment to 330,000. However, the current market conditions could reverse the above gains, Eggert said. The region is likely to witness marginal decline by 0.4% in overall steel demand during 2019, he added.

The stability of the European steel sector came to an end in mid-2018, with the imposition of Section 232 tariffs by the U.S.

The dumping of subsidized steel has not stopped even after imposition of EU safeguard measures. The imports surged by nearly 13% in 2018. The long products imports skyrocketed by 33% over the previous year, whereas the imports of flat products were up by 7% upon comparison with 2017. The most recent data suggests that imports stood higher by 2% over the initial two-month period in 2019.

The Association called for more robust and effective EU safeguard measures to curb rising imports.