According to a document seen by SteelOrbis, the European Commission will impose import quotas on certain steel products for a period of 150 days starting from February 2, 2019. However, there has been no official announcement yet. SteelOrbis has learned that the import quotas will be in force between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 and that the quota volumes will subsequently be increased by five percent for the period between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.Additionally, quotas will not be imposed globally but will vary depending on the country for each product.
According to the notification, the European Commission (EC) will impose a quota of 21,834 metric tons on pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI) imports from Turkey for the February 2, 2019-June 30, 2019 period, which will be revised to 56,161 tons for the July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020 period, and to 58,969 million tons for the July 1, 2020-June 30, 2021 period. According to last year’s statistics, Turkey’s PPGI exports to the EU in the first ten months of 2018 totaled 74,031 mt. Considering this latter export volume, Turkish coated steel producers are expected to reduce their exports to the region during the February 2-June 30 period in 2019 by approximately 40 percent due to the new quotas and the additional import duty of 25 percent to be imposed when the quota is exhausted.