ArcelorMittal is calling for the scope of the CBAM and trade measures to be extended to steel derivatives

The EU must swiftly extend the Cross-Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and safeguard measures on metal products to include steel derivatives and further processed products.

This view was expressed by Paul Brettnacher, Director of Marketing and Key Accounts at ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products, in the June issue of the client newsletter eUpdate.

As noted in the article, an increase in imports of steel-derived products not covered by the CBAM or tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) risks nullifying any real benefits offered by the EU’s current measures. Furthermore, this could undermine a significant part of the wider European steel-based value chain, not least in the electrical steel segment and sectors such as the automotive and packaging industries.

This is exacerbated by the current geopolitical instability and the dynamics of global trade.

In particular, as noted in the report, almost two-thirds of the non-grain-oriented electrical steel (NGOES) required for new electric motors and generators in Europe is currently sourced from outside the EU. Such imports threaten Europe’s industrial capacity, competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy, and undermine the foundations of the green and digital transitions. And

Global overcapacity in the steel industry, Brettnacher notes, is growing at the fastest rate since the 2008 financial crisis, with most of it concentrated in Asia and the Middle East, in many cases supported by huge subsidies. The result is a constant flow of artificially cheap exports, which undermines EU producers’ pricing power.

To address these issues, three priority actions are proposed by 2027:

• extend the scope of the CBAM to the entire value chain in the NGOES sector,
• extend the EU’s trade measures on steel to the same categories of derivatives and downstream products, thereby closing a significant regulatory loophole,
• give priority to EU-manufactured generators and electric motors in public procurement and funding programmes.

It should be noted that on 24 June, the European Union published a regulation on new safeguard measures concerning steel imports. It will replace the current measures, which expire on 30 June this year, and will apply from 1 July.