The Stainless Espresso

by Gerber Group

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EU Customs Reform 2026 High Fees and a New Super Authority 1200x630 1

EU Customs Reform 2026: High Fees and a New Super Authority

7 October 2026 – Two euros per item, three euros in customs duty per product line for consignments up to €150: from November, the EU customs reform will make every order from outside the EU more expensive. Customers pay, Brussels collects. EUROFER celebrates construction as a driver of steel demand while ignoring CBAM, quotas and punitive tariffs. The bill is paid by millions of workers in construction, engineering and the automotive industry, with poorer EU countries hit twice.

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Steel Forum 2026: How to Inflate a Steel Crisis

6 October 2026 – Anyone trying to sell tariffs needs a threatening number. For steel, the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, GFSEC, provides one. But on closer inspection, little remains of the alleged 745 million tonnes of excess capacity projected for 2028. EU ETS: fifteen associations have warned German Environment Minister Schneider against imposing conditions on free allocation. But the numbers are clear: where allowances are handed out for free, emissions fall much less.

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What Moves The Market

CBAM De Minimis Threshold: Brussels Reviews Too Late, No Data

5 October 2026 – DG TAXUD reports that the 50 tonne CBAM threshold remains below the one per cent limit. The assessment comes 153 days late, without a report, methodology or data. A new factsheet now also explains CBAM certificates, but the rules are still missing: neither the legal act governing certificate sales nor the rules for crediting carbon costs paid in the country of origin have yet been adopted.

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New CBAM Study: Relief from 2028, but Not for SMEs

2 October 2026 – Automotive industry association ACEA wants less CBAM bureaucracy. Yet the ERCST study it co-funded does not quantify any real relief, focuses on the expansion from 2028 and leaves SMEs with almost nothing. The fact that the funder is not even mentioned in the study is, at the very least, unfortunate.

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Stainless Steel Trade Defence: Five EU Proceedings, Two Speeds?

1 October 2026 – On 30 September, the European Commission opened three further trade defence proceedings concerning cold rolled stainless steel. It quickly becomes apparent that the way the applications were handled raises questions. The proceedings also reveal something else: Brussels has once again completely overlooked proportionality, especially when it comes to SMEs.

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Top Story Stainless Steel

Tariffs for Others, Stainless Steel Slabs for Themselves

17 September 2026 – Despite a 50 per cent tariff, EUROFER and Europe’s stainless steel producers are demanding another five years of anti dumping duties on cold rolled material from Asia. Yet the same producers have been importing slabs from there in massive quantities for years. The double standard is systemic, and open resistance to this unfair distortion of competition remains far too weak.

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Last Week Most Read

PPWR: Labels from Brussels, but No Stop the Clock

15 September 2026 – Brussels is once again asking for feedback on the controversial Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, PPWR. This time, the issue is harmonised pictograms on packaging and waste containers. Companies are still waiting in vain for a Stop the Clock on the flawed Regulation. Unexpected support, however, is emerging on “Buy European”: on the Industrial Accelerator Act, the German delegation within the EPP Group is distancing itself from overly strict “Made in Europe” rules.

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Focus On

Thorsten Gerber: Why Brussels Breaks Think Small First

16 September 2026 – Thorsten Gerber, CEO of the Gerber Group, is back in Strasbourg this week. Without an association, without an agency, acting on his own behalf. In this interview, the Gerber CEO explains why Brussels is breaking its own ‘Think Small First’ commitment, placing a tenfold burden on SMEs and preferring to subsidise large corporations.

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What was going on so far in 2025

EU Steel Regulation: New Consultation in a Whisper

30 September 2026 – In a new consultation on the EU Steel Regulation, the Commission wants to know how the measure is working after its first quarter. But it has asked in a whisper: no announcement as with previous consultations, and an extremely short deadline of just ten working days. Is Brussels really looking for opinions, or merely for confirmation?

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Tariff Talks: US and China Negotiate, Brussels Escalates

28 September 2026 – The United States and China are extending their trade truce and exchanging tariff lists covering around $30 billion each. Little is binding so far, and metals are absent entirely. But the signal matters. Europe, meanwhile, is choosing escalation and paying the price. At the G20 meeting in Milwaukee, alleged steel overcapacity will also be on the agenda. But is that capacity really in Asia, as the EU likes to claim?

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Green Steel Runs on Natural Gas: The Hydrogen Dream Is Over

25 September 2026 – Green Steel made with German hydrogen has failed. From Bremen to Saarland, electrolyser projects are collapsing while steel mills prepare to start production with natural gas. CBAM and steel tariffs, sold as a protective shield for the green transformation, are nevertheless supposed to remain. So who or what are they actually protecting now?

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CBAM Expansion: Bureaucracy Costs Are Out of Control

24 September 2026 – Thirteen EU Member States are calling for a year without new obligations. Brussels is providing the proof of why this is urgently needed. What the CBAM expansion will mean in terms of additional bureaucracy, and what it will really cost the companies affected, once again appears to be of little interest to policymakers.

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Metal Scrap: Export Restrictions in Green Disguise

23 September 2026 – EU Waste Shipment Regulation: the Commission is now planning its export ban on metal scrap through the regulatory back door and under a green disguise. One year without new obligations: 13 EU Member States are calling for an end to Brussels’ bureaucratic madness.

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EU Safeguard Measure on Electrical Steel Imports

22 September 2026 – French government bonds are under pressure as the government expects a higher deficit for 2026. On 25 September 2026, the heavily criticised EU safeguard measure on grain oriented electrical steel, GOES, enters into force. One point is conspicuously absent from the Commission’s reasoning: were slab imports by European producers taken into account, or ignored once again?

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EU Own Resources: Brussels Wants to Reach Into Other People’s Coffers

21 September 2026 – Brussels cannot levy taxes, so it calls them “own resources”. Now the Commission wants 30 per cent of ETS revenues and 75 per cent of CBAM revenues for the EU budget: around €11 billion a year currently paid into national coffers or by European importers. No new money is created. Brussels simply wants a larger share of it. Could Italy block the plan? Meanwhile, India appears to have negotiated itself into a significantly worse position on EU steel quotas.

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Tariffs for Others, Stainless Steel Slabs for Themselves

17 September 2026 – Despite a 50 per cent tariff, EUROFER and Europe’s stainless steel producers are demanding another five years of anti dumping duties on cold rolled material from Asia. Yet the same producers have been importing slabs from there in massive quantities for years. The double standard is systemic, and open resistance to this unfair distortion of competition remains far too weak.

Read More »

Thorsten Gerber: Why Brussels Breaks Think Small First

16 September 2026 – Thorsten Gerber, CEO of the Gerber Group, is back in Strasbourg this week. Without an association, without an agency, acting on his own behalf. In this interview, the Gerber CEO explains why Brussels is breaking its own ‘Think Small First’ commitment, placing a tenfold burden on SMEs and preferring to subsidise large corporations.

Read More »

PPWR: Labels from Brussels, but No Stop the Clock

15 September 2026 – Brussels is once again asking for feedback on the controversial Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, PPWR. This time, the issue is harmonised pictograms on packaging and waste containers. Companies are still waiting in vain for a Stop the Clock on the flawed Regulation. Unexpected support, however, is emerging on “Buy European”: on the Industrial Accelerator Act, the German delegation within the EPP Group is distancing itself from overly strict “Made in Europe” rules.

Read More »

Cost Explosion Looms: EU Parliament Votes on CBAM Expansion – Stainless Espresso

14 September 2026 – On Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote on expanding the CBAM carbon tax. That this could trigger an explosion in compliance costs for many small and medium sized enterprises appears to be something the EPP and S&D would rather ignore. German production of hot rolled steel products has risen significantly. Why is the German steel association keeping quiet about this success?

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