The European Steel Association (EUROFER) held a “State of the EU steel market and EU trade policy” webinar virtually on Thursday, May 6.
Stating that during the 2012-18 period before US Section 232 and the EU safeguard measures, the EU’s steel imports were more than doubled, while its steel exports decreased by 26 percent, Karl Tachelet, EUROFER’s director of international relations and external affairs, said that multiple EU steel antidumping duties imposed in the period 2012-2017 did not revert the trend of surging steel imports in the EU. EUROFER stated that it believes that the current safeguard measures need to be extended as, in its view, the critical conditions that led the EU to initiate the steel safeguard measures such as protectionism in third country markets, global excess capacity, trade diversion towards the EU triggered by the US Section 232 import tariff having drastically reduced US imports, and the continued risk of serious injury by deviated import surges hitting the European steel industry are still present.
According to a presentation by EUROFER’s director of economic research and market analysis Alessandro Sciamarelli, the EU steel market has experienced the worst economic recession in 2020. Order levels are not back to pre-pandemic levels, except for the automotive sector which recorded its strongest recovery in the fourth quarter last year. Widespread uncertainty in the EU steel market will remain in place at least until the first half this year, he noted.
According to EUROFER’s data, crude steel production in the EU has never recovered from the losses experienced in the 2009 financial crisis. The EU’s crude steel output recorded a 12.1 percent decrease in 2020, following a 30 percent decline in 2009. Meanwhile, apparent steel consumption in the EU has been falling since early 2019, reflecting a negative trend in steel demand and a manufacturing downturn. Apparent steel consumption increased by 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter last year, following a 10.4 percent fall in the third quarter last year, recording the first growth since the fourth quarter in 2018. In 2020, apparent steel consumption in the EU decreased by 11 percent, compared to the 13 percent fall in EUROFER’s previous forecast. For 2021, EUROFER said it expects a rebound by 11.7 percent in apparent steel consumption.