September 20, 2021 – Big surprise: Safeguard hardliner Italy wants to suspend EU steel tariffs. Holidays in Asia and sluggish metal markets. The Asian economy is emerging from the Corona low and has a lot of catching up to do.
Metals: Sluggish trading activity, holidays in Asia
Trading on the commodity exchanges started sluggish on Monday morning. After some significant profit-taking from the weekend, the holidays around the Asian Mid-Autumn Festival on September 21, 2021 are currently added.
Asia comes out of Corona low
Asian nations with high vaccination rates, such as Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea, have begun rolling back restrictions on Covid-19. More and more Asian governments are increasingly switching to a strategy of selective pandemic control instead of a no-covid strategy with hard lockdowns and negative consequences for the economy.
This should be good for the Asian economic area, which still has a good bit of economic recovery to catch up on in 2021, and provide positive trends in the market.
Italy wants to suspend steel tariffs?
We were stunned to learn that last Friday, Italian Industry Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti called for a temporary suspension of European tariffs on steel imports. At the beginning of this year, Italy, together with 11 other EU member states, had strongly advocated an extension of the Safeguard measures.
Giorgetti argues that the EU prioritized the interests of steel producers in the Safeguard decision and did not realize the effects on steel availability.
Steel consumers had drawn EC’s attention to steel shortage
As recently as spring, the steel-consuming European industry had drawn extensive attention to the steel supply crisis. Not only in the Safeguard proceedings, but also in the media. Representatives of the European Commission and Italian Members of the European Parliament in particular had reacted with great displeasure to the urgent indications and evidence provided by associations and steel consumers, but also to a report of more than 60 pages from the Gerber Group to all MEPs and EC members.
Read also:
- Stainless Espresso: Your Ego Is Your Biggest Enemy
- Breaking News: EC commits breach of law, stainless steel anti-dumping measure against Taiwan and China extended
- Stainless Espresso: Procurement concerns drive prices up again
We at the Gerber Group have been trading in stainless steel worldwide for over 20 years. We are your experts when it comes to purchasing, import, logistics and services. Information is a vital part of this. Because only then can you and we make the right decisions. Do you have any questions? Contact us now.
Disclaimer: Many things here represent our opinion. Others are information from the Internet. We can therefore never claim to be correct or complete. And never base a business decision solely on the news you receive from us.
