11 December 2025 – EU steel tariffs: The INTA Committee has published its draft amendments, including clear demands for relief and possible exemptions for SMEs. CBAM values: Moderation is no longer the right word. Is Thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel really halting production because of cheap steel imports? In Exceptional Cases, You Can Drink an Espresso in the Evening!
CBAM Values: Moderation Is No Longer the Right Word
The EU CO2 tax CBAM was intended to be fair and bearable. The Commission had originally even planned a reduction through offsetting with CO2 certificates.
What CBAM has become in recent months-and what has now been published as the final “draft”-can only be described as the worst possible outcome. Within less than eight weeks, CO2 emissions figures were invented that could not have been foreseen during the transitional phase and based on the original default values.
Recommended Article: “Provisional CBAM Calculation Values Pass Committee Vote”
We would like to refer you to the excellently prepared article “Provisional CBAM Calculation Values Pass Committee Vote” by McCloskey by OPIS from 10 December 2025.
We have little to add and will forgo a deeper analysis in this case. The sentence from the McCloskey article says it all: “this ‘worst-case scenario’ faced by steel importers has – if anything – gotten even worse.”
Commission Once Again Sides with Its Lobbyist Friends
As McCloskey by OPIS also reports today, EU steel producers had previously complained that the CO₂ data for many origins had allegedly been set far too low. As is so often the case, the Commission then unilaterally sided with its strongest lobbyist friends and devised a new calculation method for various origins-based on data from the CBAM transitional registry that cannot be considered valid.
We urge every company that relies on imports to complain to the Commission and their own government about this approach, and to demand an immediate halt to this unfair explosion in steel costs.
However, over the past two days we have also noticed that the C-list “expert” bubble, normally seen in the German business coaching sector, has begun to appear in our steel world as well – producing some remarkable stylistic curiosities. It is easy to see what these self-proclaimed CBAM experts want to achieve with their statements: to sell products that are not yet reliably backed by final data.
EU Steel Tariffs: INTA Committee Publishes Draft Amendments
The International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament published yesterday its amendment proposals to the Commission’s proposed steel tariffs and tariff quotas. These are not yet INTA’s final amendments. They will now be revised into a compromise text, which will be adopted in committee and then forwarded to the full Parliament for a vote.
Clear Demands from INTA to Consider SMEs More Strongly
We are pleased that INTA has also amended the Commission’s original proposal with various passages in favour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our many discussions with MEPs and our amendment proposals over recent months appear to have had an impact-at least in some areas. We will continue to advocate for SME relief in the planned EU steel tariffs.
Is Thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel Really Halting Production Because of Cheap Steel Imports?
Here it is again: the apocalyptic rhetoric of the German steel industry. This time, the claim is that Thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel will halt production in Germany and France by the end of the year-supposedly due to cheap electrical steel imports from China flooding the domestic market.
Business Report on Electrical Steel Paints a Different Picture
Unfortunately, this claim does not match the recently celebrated sales figures, in which the electrical steel division reportedly developed positively in financial year 24/25 (ZIP File), with deliveries even exceeding those of the previous year.
Is the Plant Simply Undergoing Maintenance?
In summer 2025, there was also a press release stating that the cold-rolling mill for electrical steel in Gelsenkirchen was scheduled for maintenance.
It is therefore quite possible that the situation has simply been used as an opportunity for a few polemical attacks.
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