16 May 2025 – A major Italian steel association has criticised imports of slabs by European steel mills and called for the introduction of trade defence measures like those for coil and sheet. Are EU scrap exports not as dramatic as assumed?
Italian steel association criticises slab imports
According to media reports, a coordinator of the Italian steel association Assofermet recently criticised European steel makers’ imports of semi-finished materials, so-called slabs. He warned that these would be imported into Europe exempt from tariffs and suggested imposing trade defense measures on these products. So far, punitive tariffs – anti-dumping and countervailing duties – have only been imposed on coils and sheets.
We take positive note of the fact that Italy has finally recognised that European steel mills are undermining their own market protection. We have already pointed out countless times that this circumvention strategy represents a significant interference in competition in the European Union, which causes serious damage to small and medium-sized companies in particular and harms their competitiveness.
In any case, we also wonder why other associations are too cowardly to do this, even if they are fully aware of the situation.
Slabs excluded from market protection in the EU so far
Slabs, regardless of whether they are steel or stainless steel semi-finished materials, are not yet covered by any European trade defence measure and are also not included in the EU Safeguard Measure on steel. In the European sanctions against Russia, slabs were also explicitly given very long transitional periods. They are only included in CBAM for the first time and will have to pay a CO2 price when imported from 2026.
EU steel makers import millions of tonnes of slabs every year
European steel and stainless steel mills import an average of more than 8 million tonnes of slabs per year. The extremely sharp rise in imports of stainless steel slabs is particularly striking. The EUROSTAT figures for Feb 2025 show a further drastic increase of more than 85% compared to the same period last year. Overall, slabs are likely to have accounted for up to 30% of all stainless steel imports into the EU in 2024.
EU scrap exports not as dramatic as assumed?
According to the latest EUROSTAT data, European steel and stainless steel scrap exports in the first two months of 2025 have proven to be almost stable compared to the same period last year. It also shows that it is primarily end-of-life scrap that is being exported from the EU to other countries.
End-of-life scrap unpopular in the EU
European steel makers are reluctant to use this end-of-life scrap in the production of steel due to impurities and foreign substances. In particular, the strong fixation on the blast furnace route in the EU makes the use of low-quality scrap very difficult.
It is therefore very surprising that the EU steelworks are working so hard to achieve a general export ban on steel scrap. The quantities of higher-quality scrap exported in 2024 were just 16%.
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