The US Department of Commerce has announced a total quota volume of 3,331,829 mt for 54 European steel product categories that will be valid for one year starting from January 1, 2022. Recently, the EU and the US reached an agreement to replace the Section 232 measures against European steel products with tariff rate quotas.
Accordingly, Germany has the biggest share in quotas with over 900,000 mt for all steel products subject to the quota regime, followed by the Netherlands with a quota volume of 507,909 and Italy with a quota volume of almost 350,000 mt. Regarding flat rolled steel products including cold rolled sheet, cold rolled strip, flat rolled coated, flat rolled hot dipped, hot rolled plate in coils, hot rolled sheet, hot rolled strip, plate in cut lengths, electro-galvanised sheet and strips, and tinplate, the Netherlands has the first place with a quota amount of 489,600 mt, while Germany has room to export 451,847 mt of flat rolled steel, followed by Sweden with 152,222 mt, France with 127,139 mt and Italy with 113,670 mt.
For the hot rolled sheet, the Netherlands, traditional hot rolled sheet supplier to the US, has the biggest annual quota volume at 122,529 mt, followed by Germany, Belgium, Italy and Sweden respectively. The Netherlands has the first place for tinplate quota volumes as well with 195,794 mt, while Germany has an annual quota volume of 121,185 mt. For cold rolled sheet, Sweden has the biggest share with 76,750 mt, followed by Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
In the longs segment, Portugal has the biggest share for rebar quota volumes with 26,286 mt, followed by Spain with 22,501 mt and Italy with 12,624 mt.
Flats exports from the EU, specifically from Germany and the Netherlands, are expected to start shortly, which will ease some of the pressure in the EU domestic market and might support the prices locally, since the oversupply issue will be less crucial, SteelOrbis understands. This might also help other countries like Turkey and India in their HRC sales to Europe.