In the run-up to the OECD ministers’ conference in Paris on Wednesday, Germany’s cold rollers have again voiced their rejection of protectionist measures by the EU. Essentially, they are questioning the economic pretext for measures against the US..

Their interest group, Fachvereinigung Kaltwalzwerke (FVK) is calling upon the European Commission to abandon the investigation against imports from third countries. Neither the potential US duties nor protective duties in the EU are in the interest of the German cold-rolling sector, Kallanish learns from a statement issued by the federation.

In the statement, FVK expresses massive doubts that the economic conditions for such a move are a given. “According to the figures we have, there has not been a great surge of imports from third countries, so we cannot see an immediate threat to Europe’s steelmaking industry,” its managing director, Martin Kunkel says. He indicates European mills’ output figures for the first quarter, which paint a very positive picture for the sector.

Kunkel and FVK are thus contradicting earlier statements by EU mills, which claimed that imports have risen significantly in recent times. He cites EU Trade Statistics for cold-rolled coil and other steel products, which do not indicate a significant increase since 2017. Looking forward, FVK says that any redirection of import flows cannot be predicted, so that any fear of additional imports is unfounded.

In this respect, any damage to the local steel sector is not clearly a given fact – and this is one of the requirements of WTO rules, he says.