Some European steelmakers, including leading producer Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, are pressuring the EU Commission to impose export restrictions on steel scrap from the EU to help preserve their domestic raw material stocks, industry sources said this week, as reported by Reuters.
"ArcelorMittal and other European steelmakers are lobbying the EU Commission to ban scrap exports from Europe," a European industry source said on the sidelines of a conference organized by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR).
"Export restriction seems to be a tendency at the moment. European steelmakers are trying to preserve their supply and Americans are trying to do the same," a second European steelmaker source said to Reuters.
"I don't think the EU would move in this direction just yet but if things start to get just a little bit worse for the steel industry I am sure many countries would be in favour of such a measure."