Antonio Marcegaglia, chairman and CEO of Italian group Marcegaglia, has written an open letter to the presidents of the European Parliament and European Commission concerning imports of stainless steel coils into Europe from Indonesia.
Mr. Marcegaglia underlined that Marcegaglia Group is the largest independent processor of coils, including stainless steel coils, in the world. “Our group sources hot rolled stainless steel coils (especially black coils) from all available sources, both within the EU (around 40%) and outside the EU, including Indonesia,” he stated.
“Bearing in mind that the demand for stainless steel coils recently increased and is expected to further increase by 3-5 percent in the coming years, it is evident that to limit the imports of stainless steel hot rolled black coils to the EU would put at risk the viability of our stainless steel business without benefiting the EU producers of such coils.”
Marcegaglia buys stainless steel black coil from Italy-based Acciai Speciali Terni (AST), which is its main supplier. However, “such volumes account for roughtly one third of Marcegaglia's needs,” the company CEO indicated.
“Adequate volumes of hot rolled (black) coil imports are vital to the processing industry and to Marcegaglia in particular,” he went on to say. The company accounts for almost 90 percent of total imports of black stainless coils into the EU and 60 percent of hot rolled stainless coils imports.
“Indonesia is selling their hot rolled stainless coils exclusively in the form of black coils (a semi-product) and exclusively to Marcegaglia,” stressed Antonio Marcegaglia. Moreover, he added, the increase in Indonesian exports in the first five months of 2019 (+33,000 mt) is more than offset by the decrease in imports from China (-16,000 mt) and the US (-24,000 mt). Furthermore, total imports of hot rolled stainless steel coils into the EU decreased by 10 percent compared to 2018, he stated.
For these reasons, Marcegaglia concluded by stating, “There is no ‘Indonesian invasion’ of the market.” Therefore, “A limitation of imports of hot rolled stainless coils from third-countries, and especially from Indonesia, would not help the EU steel industry while damaging the interests of a big European player such as Marcegaglia,” he stressed
The Marcegaglia CEO said he is “confident that the Commission will review the existing measures on stainless steel hot rolled coils in the usual balanced fashion and will take in due account the above specific issues.”