Podcast: Europe’s steel imports a ‘high stakes gamble’

Stringent new quotas have increased the risk of exposure to increased steel import tariffs, making overseas procurement a “high stakes gamble” for buyers in the EU and United Kingdom, a new MEPS podcast concludes.

The latest episode of MEPS’s Speaking of Steel podcast follows the European Commission’s announcement of its new country-specific TRQs on steel just a day ahead of the July implementation of rules that cut tariff-free imports by 47%, exposing increased volumes of steel imports to new 50% above-quota tariffs. In the UK, importers were given just five days to react to a 51% cut in that country’s TRQs and the implementation of an identical 50% above-quota tariff.

MEPS steel market analyst Jon Carruthers-Green said: “We're still going to see these imports. We're going to see them at a lower level, but we're going to see this increased risk. You don't know necessarily just how much the tariff is going to be, certainly in the early stages of a new quota.

“The kind of above-quota duties that you're looking at mean that you've got to apply that bigger margin of error.”

Carruthers-Green joins fellow steel market analysts Adam Crookes and Benedicte Mikolajczak in the new Speaking of Steel podcast. The three steel market experts discuss the new trade defence measures, and their repercussions, with MEPS managing editor Tom Sharpe.