Antonio Marcegaglia, CEO of the largest Italian steel processor Marcegaglia Group, has expressed his doubts regarding EU safeguard measures during a webinar this week. "As a convinced Europeanist, I have to underline the limits of supranational policies," he said. Marcegaglia said he has never opposed emergency measures, adding, however, that all actions that are aimed at closing the market do not favour the market itself. "For a country like Italy, which is essentially based on processing activities, focusing on self-sufficiency could be harmful," he added. However, he said that he is convinced that the importance of imports will inevitably decline, "accelerating the process of regionalization," and thereby "European players will gain greater importance" in the future.
As reported previously, the European Commission has proposed modifications to the current safeguard quotas which are going to penalise Turkey's HRC exports in particular, an important feedstock material for steelmakers such as Marcegaglia which relies heavily on imports. European member states will vote on the proposed modifications on June 12. Meanwhile, Turkish HRC exports to the EU have also been affected by the EU's decision to open an antidumping investigation on ex-Turkey HRC, which has pushed Turkish suppliers to seek alternative outlets such as China.