European Union may take certain measures to help steel producers
Certain European steel producers, such as French producers demanded European Union (EU) Commission to suspend EU import quota for steel products from
Russia,
Ukraine and
Kazakhstan with the claim that high prices cause injury to steel producers.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis,
Russia was allowed to export 1.38 million tons of steel to EU under the scope of the agreement signed in July 2002 and recently the quota has been increased by 438'000 tons as the enlargement of EU would lead a significant decrease in the exports of
Russia.
However certain producers are not satisfied with the quota volume. On the other hand, certain officials state that Russian companies have filled 20% of the quota that is allowed as they mainly export to Asia due to strong demand, therefore any further quota will not help reduce prices or meet demand in
Europe.
EU Commission is now studying on possible three solutions to help reduce prices. The quotas for exporters to EU may be increased, certain anti-dumping measures may be eliminated or imports of ferrous
scrap and certain raw materials may be increased. The Commission is stated to have focused on the last solution. However, the obstacle is the export tariff on ferrous
scrap imposed by
Russia. EU is stated to have made several calls to
Russia to lift the restrictions on exports of the subject raw material.
Meanwhile, Russian
scrap processors reportedly demanded government to lift export tariff on ferrous
scrap. However, the government has not made any change in the restrictions on export of
scrap so far.