Europe's steelmakers today called for sharply higher anti-dumping tariffs to protect against a flood of cheap Chinese imports, blamed for plunging the future of Britain's biggest steelworks into doubt.
Steelmakers blamed slow, ineffective action by the European Union for failing to stop other countries, particularly China, from massive steel dumping -- exporting their excess production at below-cost prices.
Indian giant Tata announced this week it is putting all or part of its British business up for sale, including the nation's leading Port Talbot steelworks, because of a global glut, plunging prices and a "significant increase" in cheaper imports to Europe.
The Brussels-based European Steel Association representing all steel production in the European Union, which is the second largest steel producer in the world after China, said the time had come for Europe to act.
The United States takes just four to five months to deploy anti-dumping duties, compared to 16 months in the European Union, said European Steel Association spokesman Charles de Lusignan.
US anti-dumping tariffs are also significantly higher than those in Europe.
The United States recently levied a duty of 266 per cent on a Chinese steel product while the comparable tariff in Europe was 13 percent, De Lusignan told AFP.
"The European Union is certainly putting out lots of action plans and it is making all the right noises. The issue is that the methods that can be used to defend against injurious dumping are too slow to deploy and result in measures which are too small to be effective," De Lusignan said.
"This means that whereas the United States vigorously defends against dumping, the EU is seeing its markets drowned out by the effects of pricing pressure from abroad."
Europe's steel sector, which has an annual revenue of 166 billion euros (USD 189 billion) and accounts for 1.3 per cent of the bloc's total economic output, directly employs some 328,000 people, according to the European Commission.
Last month, European Union heads of state and government vowed to take strong action to support the industry.
Steelmakers say they need that support urgently.
Luxembourg-headquartered ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steel maker, announced in February it had lost USD 7.95 billion in 2015, blaming deteriorating global prices because of excess production capacity in China.
"If you look at the operating results of steel companies, the level of Chinese exports and the impact on prices in our main markets, it is clear that there is an urgent need for action," finance director Aditya Mittal told reporters at the time.
Philippe Chalmin, head of the Paris-based Cyclope commodities research institute, said Europe had no comparative advantages in basic steel production.
"There is 300-500 million tonnes of excess steel capacity in the world. The Chinese are suffering, too, but they have exported their problems," he told AFP.
