The European Commission has published its confirmed steel safeguard amendments, introducing several changes set to take effect from 1 April, Kallanish notes.

"The European Commission has tightened the steel safeguard measure to shield the EU steel industry from surging imports, delivering on the EU's Steel and Metals Action Plan," it says.

New caps ranging from 13-30% have been introduced for 16 product categories’ residual quotas.

The Commission has decided to retain only 35% of the quotas that had been previously fully reallocated across all origins due to sanctions on Russia and Belarus, for categories 1A, 7, 16, and 21. As a result, the new quotas for these categories have been reduced compared to the previous quarter. This reduction affects hot-rolled strip and sheet, plate, wire rod, and hollow sections. But for Category 24 – other seamless tubes – the redistribution of sanctioned volumes will be fully reversed.

Category 1 has been split into two sub-categories. Category 1B now covers niche products under CN code 72126000, while category 1A includes all other hot rolled sheet and strip previously falling under category 1.

Tighter restrictions on residual quotas have been introduced, particularly for products facing high import pressure. In categories grouped under groups 1, 2, and 3, exporters that exhaust their country-specific quotas will no longer be allowed to access residual quotas in the fourth quarter.

Group 1 are products facing very significant import pressure – those under categories 1A, 4A, 7, 21, 24 – group 2 faces significant import pressure and group 3 moderate import pressure. Group 4 products meanwhile face no import pressure.

The regulation also eliminates the carry-over of unused quota volumes between quarters for groups 1 and 2, where import pressure is particularly high. The annual liberalisation rate, which determines how much quotas expand each year, has been reduced from 1% to just 0.1%. These two changes will take effect from 1 July.

"The amendment of the safeguard does not impact its duration – it will legally lapse on 30 June 2026," the Commission notes in a press statement.