30 April 2025 – Spot market prices for Asian stainless steel enjoyed gains today. Europe’s SMEs caught between systemic relevance and political ignorance. European Steel and Metals Action Plan: EUROFER and EUROMETAL joining forces?
Spot market prices for Asian stainless steel up
Spot market prices for Asian stainless steel enjoyed gains today. Stainless steels in the 300 series rose by up to 1.1%.
After nickel prices on the European market (LME) had risen significantly again since 9 April, they have been moving steadily and stably sideways for several days at an average of around USD 15596/MT.
Europe’s SMEs between systemic relevance and political ignorance
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are considered the backbone of the European economy and market. But while their importance is regularly emphasised in Sunday speeches, the reality is quite different: There is a lack of genuine attention to their needs in Brussels. The political processes usually bypass the interests of SMEs – or ignore them.
EESC warns: CBAM only made for large corporations
One particularly topical example is the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). The measure is intended to strengthen climate protection and create fair competition – a sensible goal. However, for many smaller companies, its implementation is a bureaucratic feat of strength.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) warns that companies without their own compliance department in particular are confronted with complex documentation obligations and unclear requirements. CBAM thus illustrates a general problem: policy is often made by and for large corporations – and small and medium-sized enterprises are simply expected to go along with it and swallow the bitter pill.
This is not an isolated case. Whether it’s the energy transition, the single market or digitalisation – the industrial policy debate is dominated by the voices of large corporations. The small players, who make up 99 per cent of companies in Europe, hardly get a chance to speak. As a result, new reporting obligations and regulations are piling up without any serious consideration being given to the practical impact on smaller companies.
EESC presents proposals
The EESC recently put concrete proposals on the table: Regulations should be subjected to an SME stress test in future. Digital reporting tools must become simpler. And overall, there needs to be less paperwork and more efficiency. So far, however, all of this has remained a political accessory – without any noticeable effect.
Europe needs a real change of course
What Europe needs now is a real change of course. SMEs must no longer be regarded as a subordinate target group. They belong at the centre of policy-making – with participation, protection and targeted support. Because anyone who loses SMEs risks more than just economic weakness. It jeopardises the foundations of European cohesion.
European Steel and Metals Action Plan: EUROFER and EUROMETAL join forces?
EUROFER and EUROMETAL, two associations dominated by large corporations and their subsidiaries, have recently joined forces to lend more weight to their demands in the European Steel and Metals Action Plan, which is currently written exclusively for large companies and severely neglects small and medium-sized enterprises, once again pushing them to the margins and into economic insignificance.
Representations of the large corporations
The large metal associations are trying to give the impression that they are pulling in the same direction and are also speaking for the broad mass of small and medium-sized companies in the EU.
This is contradicted by the composition of the EUROMETAL board, which only has one SME representative in the form of its president. Six board members are representatives of large companies and six other associations, at least three of which also belong to large companies. Otherwise, the association is made up of the well-known steel giants around ArcelorMittal Europe, Tata Steel Europe, Salzgitter, Klöckner & Co. and others.
Thorsten Gerber, CEO of the Gerber Group, said today: ‘It shows once again the expedient argumentation of the two associations, which use this day in, day out in their lobbying activities with politicians.’He continued: ‘Politicians would therefore be well advised to be more than just critical of the words and alleged facts of these so-called associations.’
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