Federacciai, the association representing Italian steel producers, has in a press release defended the proposed extension of the EU safeguard measures on steel imports, stating, "considering the cause of the European defense measures adopted to be a response to the incorrect or distorting behavior of the international markets or to mere speculation appears misleading as well as clearly wrong, as easily demonstrated by the numbers available.”
According to Federacciai, the imbalance between supply and demand, the strong increases in the prices of raw materials and the explosion in logistics costs are not limited to the steel industry alone but have had serious repercussions on various manufacturing and technological sectors.
According to the association of Italian steelmakers, the renewal of the safeguard is "an act due to the persistence of the distortive protectionist measures imposed by the United States and canceling this measure now would be irresponsible, also given the indisputable fact that none of the import quotas of individual products has reached saturation since the beginning of the year, and therefore the European safeguard has absolutely not prevented the free import of steel products in this phase of economic recovery.”
"Today, we believe it is important to maintain the existing defense measures by asking, where necessary, for a revision that can take into account particular market movements by reducing the possible criticalities encountered for some countries or some products," Federacciai stated.