Europe Eyes Steel Deal with U.S. by Mid-October

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The European Commission (EC) is hoping to hammer out an acceptable steel deal with the U.S. by the end of the next month in an effort to end the crippling tariffs currently hitting European steel and aluminum suppliers.

Following a recent meeting with leading steel company executives, Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič told Euractiv that Europe and the U.S. are facing the same problems of overcapacity, caused by cheap exports from China and other nations. "We are going to adopt by mid-October a very strong trade protection measure. We want to do it in a way that we will tackle, I hope, in close cooperation also with the U.S. the same challenge they are facing. We will be simply looking at overall imports from where they would come to the European market." The new measures will be designed to tackle China, which accounts for over half of global steel production, but Šefčovič pointed out that "they are not the only ones." Europe's steel and aluminum sectors have been hammered by a 50% tariff imposed by the Trump administration. This tariff was not addressed in the wide-ranging 15% trade deal brokered between the European Union and the U.S. in July. For additional information, see July 29, 2025, article - Europe Seals 'Last-Minute' Tariff Deal with U.S..

Šefčovič said: "We have lost 60 million tons of our production capacity since 2008. We are the only region in the world where the production is actually decreasing. Data from the World Steel Association highlights that the EU's share of global steel production has fallen from 9.4% to 6.9% over the past decade.

Europe's leading steel association EUROFER responded: "We welcome Commissioner Šefčovič's strong commitment to present, in the first half of October, a highly effective steel trade measure that will secure EU steel capacities and investments in this strategic sector for Europe's geoeconomic autonomy", said Dr. Henrik Adam, President of the European Steel Association (EUROFER). "The EU must now stand up and fight for its industrial backbone in the face of the unprecedented existential threat of global steel excess capacity, with millions of European quality jobs at risk. We hope that the expected Commission proposal will be the basis for the European Parliament and the Council to adopt a strong solution".

The latest production data in EUROFER's Economic and Steel Market Outlook paints a depressing picture of the state of the European steel sector. Another recession both in apparent steel consumption (-0.2%, revised upwards from -0.9%) and in steel-using sectors (-0.7%, revised downwards from -0.5%) is confirmed for 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, apparent steel consumption increased for the second consecutive time (+2.2%, after +0.5% in the last quarter of 2024), reaching 33.8 million tonnes. However, the outlook for steel demand remains highly uncertain, with improvements expected no earlier than the first quarter of 2026, and consumption volumes still far below pre-pandemic levels. The group blamed the "lack of a solution for steel in the EU-U.S. trade negotiations, the ongoing unpredictability of the global geoeconomic situation, and persistently weak demand against an ever-growing global steel overcapacity."

Axel Eggert, Director General of EUROFER, said: "With cheap imports continuing to be diverted to the EU, we cannot help but fear further closures and layoffs -- including in our downstream sectors -- with the irreversible loss of strategic EU assets to the benefit of our direct competitors in the U.S., Asia, North Africa and Middle East. Our last resort to tackle global overcapacity lies with the upcoming new EU trade measure."

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