Agency Report –
US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is planning to impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports is hitting the EU steel sector at the worst possible time, a German industry association said on Monday.
Gunnar Groebler, president of the German Steel Association, called on the EU to act “in a united, planned and rapid manner.”
EU safeguards need to be adapted quickly to protect the steel industry in the bloc, he said.
“The steel tariffs announced by the US will lead to volume diversions to Europe, further increasing the existing import pressure from overcapacity in China,” Groebler, chief executive of steelmaker Salzgitter, said.
The association also called on the EU to continue talks with Washington on the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium, a proposed trade agreement to fight carbon intensity and global overcapacity in the sector.
According to the association, talks on such a deal had been held under the Biden administration, but no agreement has been reached so far.
The US is the most important market for the EU steel industry, Groebler noted, with around 4 million tons exported across the Atlantic in 2023.
Germany alone exports some 1 million tons of mostly special steels to the US each year, he said.
When the Trump administration imposed punitive tariffs on the EU during his first term in office, EU exports to the US plunged from 5.2 million tons in 2018 to 2.5 million tons in 2020, according to the association.
