The European non-integrated wire rod processors association EUNIRPA has said that the EU safeguard measures which were supposed to regulate normal trade flows in steel sector in general “are in fact causing severe disruption to the downstream steel processors and in particular to the independent steel wire rod processors.”
EUNIRPA said it has been increasingly facing competition on downstream products from third countries with the safeguard measures being implemented since the beginning of October this year.
“We have continuously warned decision makers that the safeguard measures are very detrimental to the independent wire rod processing industry because of the risk of delocalization of downstream industries,” said Kris Van Ginderdeuren, president of EUNIRPA. “However, the situation is now deteriorating very rapidly; non-EU producers of wire rod are reacting to the limited quotas by integrating downwards in their own countries. For instance, imports of processed steel are entering the EU market at dramatically increased quantities and at very low prices.”
The association stated that their concerns over this situation are increasing so much that EUNIRPA members are considering resorting to antidumping measures and other trade protection measures in order to protect their presence in the EU, while a task force has even been created to monitor imports and evaluate market developments on this issue.