According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2018-2019/Q1 2018 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), following the peak in monthly steel imports, including semi-finished steel products, in May last year, third country imports into the EU softened somewhat over the June-August period but resumed a growing trend from September, and as a consequence total steel imports over the first eleven months of 2017 fell by just one percent year on year and remained very close to the 2016 record level.
EUROFER stated that, as far as the main countries of origin are concerned, India and Turkey were, in terms of volume, the largest steel exporters to the EU in 2017, followed by China, South Korea and Russia. These five countries represent almost 80 percent of total finished steel imports into the EU.
Finished product imports from India almost doubled in 2017 and imports from Turkey rose by 65 percent, both year on year, thereby replacing impeded imports from China and Russia. Ukraine and Brazil’s imports into the EU decreased as these countries faced antidumping duties imposed by the EU Commission on certain products found to have been dumped. Smaller exporters, such as Serbia, Egypt and Taiwan benefitted from the gap left by the partial withdrawal of the countries that had measures imposed on them, reflecting the continued existence of global excess capacity looking for outlets.
According to the report, the antidumping and anti-subsidy measures imposed by the EU Commission in 2017 had a positive impact on the overall reduction in imports from third countries. Global steel market supply and demand also gradually became better balanced owing to improving demand conditions and production cuts in China.