The European Union is taking measures and tightening the mesh of duties, but the tide of imports does not stop. In the first three months of the year, according to the most recent data from Federacciai, 2,821 million tons of steel products entered the Italian territory, 13.1% more than in the previous quarter, while in 2015 imports of steel products in Italy touched 20 million tons, 20.2% more than in 2014.
At the top of the list of exporting countries is China, followed by South Korea, Iran, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey. After the boom of 2015, during which in particular the imports of flat products grew by 23.7% – reaching 12.362 million tons, i.e. over 2 million more than the entire Italian domestic annual production – also in February the national market is confirmed as a «land of conquest» for the economies of emerging countries, with an increase of 27.7% in these products, driven by the competitive pressure of emerging economies such as Iranian, Chinese and Ukrainian.
STEEL IMPORTS The main non-EU countries of origin of the materials. In thousands of tons and % var over the previous period. (Source: Federacciai)
The phenomenon is affecting all the major EU steel industries, and the time has come for Europe to erect barriers. In recent months, Brussels has decided for import tariffs on numerous products, including rebar, cold rolled flat products, rolled stainless steel.
An investigation to impose anti-dumping duties for the import of hot rolled flat products is being completed. “It is clear – the general manager of Eurofer, Axel Eggert, explained yesterday – that the root of the problem is China, with a growth of up to 50% of the total steel production capacity in 2015 compared to an incidence of 15% in 2000. Chinese state planning has led to over 400 million tons of overcapacity in this country: this volume alone is more than two and a half times the total Chinese production”. Not only that: in the first four months of the current year, in the face of evident difficulties of the major world steel powers, forced to pull the brakes in their plants, only India and China have continued to produce at full capacity.
In the crosshairs of the protest of the European steel industry there is the excessive Chinese power, but not only that. Russia and other non-European countries are also put on the index. According to rumors, Eurofer is pressing the European Commission to obtain duties also against Belarus, Turkey, Brazil, Iran, Ukraine and Serbia.
According to Federacciai’s data, in the first two months of this year alone, imports of coils (Ilva’s core business) from China increased by 69%, those from Iran by 91%, those from Ukraine by 107.1%. But things are not better neither for long products, the many cases already “protected”. In the first four months of the current year, imports of reinforcing bars into the European Union grew by 5.34 percent: with products that can no longer come from China, Belarus is filling the gap. Imports that are also growing are wire rod (+19.34%, with flows driven by Ukraine) and merchant bars (+52.99%, in this case China is leading). The latest data confirm the difficulties of the main European steel companies: the United Kingdom, the territory most affected by Chinese pressure in recent months, lost 37.4 percent of production in the first four months, after having already lost 10% of output in 2015, equal to approximately one million tons. Also France (-11.1%) and Germany (-2.3%) were in difficulty in the first four months.
The overcapacity crisis is not sparing anyone, and in the face of Europe that is closing in on its fort, even in the United States (-10.5% loss in volume last year) customs inspections are strengthened. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, up to 260% tariffs have been imposed on some Chinese imports in recent weeks. But Italian products were also affected: a “duty” of 92.12% and 12.63% respectively was applied to the coated coils of Macergaglia and Arvedi in recent days.
Matteo Meneghello 27th May 2016
Il Sole 24Ore