The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has said that securing an international level playing field has become increasingly challenging, adding that Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with major emerging, resource-rich economies are not concluded, while protectionist measures are cumulating in all steel regions of the world outside the EU.
"The EU steel industry depends on open markets and fair trade. However, since the global crisis, the proliferation of unfair trade practices by non-EU steel producing countries is undermining the level playing field for EU steel producers, increasingly weakening their margins," said EUROFER director general Axel Eggert. "For Europe to keep its global leadership in this strategic sector with hundreds of thousands of highly skilled employees, trade policy needs to be reactive and effective, forcefully tackling third market access and raw material export restrictions, and enforcing the EU's trade remedy instruments without inhibition against unfair trade practices."
According to EUROFER, the only moderate rebound in EU steel demand so far this year - estimated to have grown by about four percent over the first three quarters of 2014 - has been largely absorbed by imports. Owing to finished steel imports rising by 22 percent over this period, domestic deliveries by EU mills increased only by around 1.5 percent, and so EU mills are losing market share to steel suppliers from abroad. At the same time, margins of steelmakers in third countries are protected by domestic policies.
EUROFER also suggested that the EU should not give market economy status to China as China's economy as a whole does not function on free market terms, and the country does not meet the EU technical criteria.