The first panel at the "EUROMETAL Southern Europe Meeting 2026" hosted by EUROMETAL and Assofermet in Milan today, February 26, opened with a clear message: the risk of the deindustrialization of the European Union is no longer an hypothesis, but a dynamic that the industry - along the entire steel supply chain - already perceives as real. The core of the discussion was the combined impact of trade measures, regulatory costs and growing global competitive pressure.
Cinzia Vezzosi, president of Assofermet, framed the issue as "systemic" and not limited to the steel sector alone. Vezzosi recalled how the EU has adopted measures with shared objectives (tackling environmental dumping, protecting domestic production, the ecological transition), but called for a look at their effectiveness, stating, "Are these instruments really strengthening the EU's ability to compete or, on the contrary, do they risk undermining it deeply?"
According to the president of Assofermet, CBAM - created to rebalance competition - risks turning into a heavy burden for distribution and processing, i.e., for those segments that are already operating in global markets and are serving downstream manufacturing. The competitive gap, she said, could become structural. When this happens, she said, "deindustrialization begins", with direct effects on employment, industrial capacity and the resistance of the value chain.
Vezzosi called for a change of pace in the European approach, asking for consistency between transition and competitiveness, stating, "This is not a corporative appeal, rather a systemic appeal. We ask environmental policies to be accompanied by industrial policies and that the protection of production does not end up penalizing processing and distribution. Above all, we ask for competitiveness to become a central issue of European choices and decisions."
Next, Alexander Julius, president of EUROMETAL, shifted the focus to the resilience of European manufacturing, recalling that the supply chain does not end with primary steel. Distribution and user sectors make all the difference, he said, because without those who transform and incorporate steel into finished products, industrial demand and, consequently, the very sustainability of the segment in Europe are lacking.
In his speech, Julius insisted on a key point: the current combination of trade measures and environmental regulations, with rising costs and still unclear details, is generating a level of uncertainty that the industry considers dangerous. In his opinion, this not only affects the accounts of companies, but also the ability to plan and invest. "The industry needs certainties: at least we need to be able to make calculations. And, unfortunately, this is lacking today," he said, warning that the absence of a predictable framework risks translating into rising costs that are difficult to manage when the measures are fully operational.
Julius then launched a further alarm signal on the degree of market readiness, stating, "I fear that many companies are not ready and that they are only partially considering these costs in their calculations. And this could turn into a surprise towards the end of 2027, when it will be time to pay." In the context of the debate on CBAM, this came as a reminder of the need for tools and application rules to be defined quickly, to avoid distorting effects along the value chain.
Finally, Julius underlined the political dimension of the issue. According to the president of EUROMETAL, "European institutions will do nothing without pressure from national governments. This is why we must remain united and do something together," adding that EUROMETAL is preparing a Europe-wide initiative, open to the involvement of interested associations in addition to Assofermet, with the aim of building a common position and a coordinated action "to be started immediately", because - he concluded - "We have to do something now".