23 February 2026 – Is the Commission watering down its “Buy European” steel quota idea in favor of a “Buy Green” approach? That would be a significant setback for EU steel producers. Base metals showing positive signals on Monday. New US tariffs without impact on steel and aluminum.
Base Metals with Positive Signals
Nickel prices at the European LME improved by around 1.6% in early Monday trading to approximately $17,600 per tonne. Aluminum and copper are showing a positive sideways movement. Copper had even briefly managed to break through the $13,000 per tonne mark again and is currently trading just below it.
New US Tariffs Have No Impact on Steel and Aluminum
On Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs imposed by the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were not permissible. The US government immediately responded by revoking the tariffs in question. However, President Trump simultaneously announced new tariffs of 10%, which he later raised to 15%.
New Tariffs Based on Article 122 of the US Trade Act of 1974
The legal basis for these tariffs is the US Trade Act of 1974, specifically Article 122, which allows the President in certain clearly defined circumstances to impose additional tariffs of up to 15% for a period of up to 150 days. The swift response from the US government to the Supreme Court ruling suggests that Washington had already prepared for this scenario.
Section 232 Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Explicitly Exempted
Explicitly excluded from the new additional tariffs, alongside several other measures, are the existing Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, whose rate had already been raised to 50% at the beginning of 2025. According to the presidential proclamation, the new 15% tariff therefore expressly does not apply to steel and aluminum products or their derivatives.
“Buy Green” Steel Instead of “Buy European” Steel Quotas?
Steel is a mass product. Over a billion tonnes are produced and consumed worldwide every year – and the trend is rising. The popular European narrative of global overcapacity, which is used to justify trade protection measures and subsidies for outdated steelworks, has long since lost its solid foundation.
Isolation Instead of Competition
Nevertheless, European steel producers are constantly calling for new protective measures, tariffs and import quotas. With the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), planned steel tariffs of 50 per cent and a reduction in import quotas of more than 45 per cent, the EU wants to seal off its market almost hermetically. Domestic steel producers had pinned further hopes on the EU Industrial Accelerator Act, which has been postponed several times and is now announced again for this week: binding quotas for European steel in public procurement.
“Buy Green” Steel Now on the Agenda?
This ambition could now backfire. Partly under pressure from Germany, the Commission may pivot from “Buy European Steel” to “Buy Green Steel.” On the surface, this seems logical. After all, it would be absurd for public procurement to continue favoring conventional, carbon-intensive European steel while billions of euros in subsidies flow into green steel production. Member states, and by extension taxpayers, are investing in green steel, only to receive homeopathic token quantities from producers in return.
Quotas Hide Problems, They Don’t Solve Them
But “Buy Green” quotas would once again merely paper over Europe’s real structural problems rather than address them. When the heads of major German corporations like BASF or Henkel admit at the Munich Security Conference that they cannot operate cost-effectively even with fully taxpayer-funded production facilities, neither tariffs nor quotas will change a thing.
It is the structural burdens, above all high CO2 and energy costs, running to €200 or more per tonne, that are hollowing out Europe’s competitiveness. When cheaper and more abundant green power is available elsewhere, and CO2 emissions abroad are actually falling, corporate relocation is no surprise. This isn’t carbon leakage – it’s market economics.
Fix the Single Market, Don’t Close Borders
The EU urgently needs to put its own house in order: dismantling tariff-equivalent trade barriers of sometimes over 100%, harmonizing the electricity market, and structurally reducing energy and CO2 costs. Until that happens, every protective measure remains nothing more than treating symptoms and stealing competitiveness from other EU companies.
Green Paint on a Rusting System
Once again, it becomes clear: Green Steel and the Green Deal were, to a large extent, convenient narratives – well suited to distracting from the far more pressing structural problems facing the Union. As long as Europe fails to dismantle its patchwork energy policy, quotas and tariffs will not save the steel industry. They will merely preserve it in amber – while making competition far more expensive for everyone else. Just another bullshit moment for Green Steel, and with it, the EU Green Deal.
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