There is an urgent need for decisive measures to safeguard both the capacities and the jobs within the basic metals sectors.
The European steel sector is under immense pressure, with sites shutting down, production being cut, and jobs disappearing. Since the financial crisis of 2008/09, around 100,000 steel jobs have been lost. And the situation in the aluminium sector is just as bleak. Five additional EU aluminium smelters have been shut down since 2021, on top of the two that had already ceased operating in 2015, linked to high energy prices. 3.3 million jobs depend on these industries today in Europe, directly and indirectly. These are good quality jobs and we want to keep them in Europe.
These industries are critical to our strategic autonomy in areas such as energy and defence. Trade wars have very real social consequences. The risk of losing critical infrastructures is very real, and without a comprehensive response, the entire industrial base is at stake.
A central pillar of this strategy must be to ensure a level playing field for European producers in the face of massive global overcapacity and increased trade conflict. There is projected to be a global steel excess capacity reaching 630 million metric tonnes by 2026 - equivalent to five times the EU crude steel production in 2023. The situation for aluminium is also dire, with overcapacity in the Chinese supply alone around 17 mT, which is more than the total EU demand.
IndustriAll Europe believes that the EU must urgently strengthen and ensure an assertive enforcement of the EU Trade Defence Instruments – anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard tools - to stop unfair trade practices and circumvention in the short term. But for a sustainable longer-term solution, we need a structural solution to comprehensively stop the spillover impact of the persisting and worsening global excess capacity, replacing the current steel safeguards (which end in 2026) with a more robust tariffication regime and measures that take into account WTO rules.
The EU action plan on basic metals due in spring 2025, according to the Competitiveness Compass; the deteriorating economic outlook for the sectors, as well as the increased threat of trade conflicts, mean that the EU must send a clear signal very soon that there is a concrete plan to secure jobs and industrial capacity.
Judith Kirton Darling, General Secretary of industriAll Europe, says: “We urgently need a robust EU action plan for our basic metals, with concrete measures. The announcements made by the US concerning tariffs on steel only renew the importance of action within the EU to secure our own industry. Europe needs to invest in and secure good industrial jobs. Europe needs a proactive industrial policy that will strengthen us. There should not be a choice of US or China, Europe itself is the solution. Europe’s industry is the backbone of the economy. The new, extra tariffs on steel from the Trump administration only make the case for an assertive strategic autonomy stronger.”
The European steel sector is under immense pressure, with sites shutting down, production being cut, and jobs disappearing. Since the financial crisis of 2008/09, around 100,000 steel jobs have been lost. And the situation in the aluminium sector is just as bleak. Five additional EU aluminium smelters have been shut down since 2021, on top of the two that had already ceased operating in 2015, linked to high energy prices. 3.3 million jobs depend on these industries today in Europe, directly and indirectly. These are good quality jobs and we want to keep them in Europe.
These industries are critical to our strategic autonomy in areas such as energy and defence. Trade wars have very real social consequences. The risk of losing critical infrastructures is very real, and without a comprehensive response, the entire industrial base is at stake.
A central pillar of this strategy must be to ensure a level playing field for European producers in the face of massive global overcapacity and increased trade conflict. There is projected to be a global steel excess capacity reaching 630 million metric tonnes by 2026 - equivalent to five times the EU crude steel production in 2023. The situation for aluminium is also dire, with overcapacity in the Chinese supply alone around 17 mT, which is more than the total EU demand.
IndustriAll Europe believes that the EU must urgently strengthen and ensure an assertive enforcement of the EU Trade Defence Instruments – anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard tools - to stop unfair trade practices and circumvention in the short term. But for a sustainable longer-term solution, we need a structural solution to comprehensively stop the spillover impact of the persisting and worsening global excess capacity, replacing the current steel safeguards (which end in 2026) with a more robust tariffication regime and measures that take into account WTO rules.
The EU action plan on basic metals due in spring 2025, according to the Competitiveness Compass; the deteriorating economic outlook for the sectors, as well as the increased threat of trade conflicts, mean that the EU must send a clear signal very soon that there is a concrete plan to secure jobs and industrial capacity.
Judith Kirton Darling, General Secretary of industriAll Europe, says: “We urgently need a robust EU action plan for our basic metals, with concrete measures. The announcements made by the US concerning tariffs on steel only renew the importance of action within the EU to secure our own industry. Europe needs to invest in and secure good industrial jobs. Europe needs a proactive industrial policy that will strengthen us. There should not be a choice of US or China, Europe itself is the solution. Europe’s industry is the backbone of the economy. The new, extra tariffs on steel from the Trump administration only make the case for an assertive strategic autonomy stronger.”