Steel is a fundamental pillar of a healthy economy, essential for infrastructure, construction, and industrial development. Industrialisation typically starts with the establishment of a domestic steel industry.
However, some formerly developing countries struggle to scale down their steel production once they reach a mature industrial stage. Meanwhile, other countries continue to expand their steel industries, often guided by government strategies aimed at boosting exports. This dynamic has led to production capacities far exceeding global demand.
As of 2024, global steel overcapacity exceeded 602 million tonnes - more than 4 times the EU’s total annual steel consumption – and is projected to rise to 721 million tonnes by 2027. Despite the growing mismatch, capacity reductions are frequently delayed or avoided due to government intervention, resulting in entrenched structural overcapacity and significant market distortions.
As a consequence, EU steel trade deficit has massively widened since 2021. A positive trade balance in finished steel products of 11 million tonne in 2013 has turned into a deficit of 10.7 million tonnes in 2024.
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Brussels, 28 July 2025 — The European steel value chain is at a critical juncture. Deindustrialization is accelerating across both steel production, distribution and processing, threatening the resilience, competitiveness, and long-term sustainability of a sector essential to Europe's strategic autonomy and industrial base.
Brussels, 29 July 2025 – The proposal for a ‘highly effective’ new trade measure to counter global overcapacity and preserve the European steel industry’s capacities, published yesterday by France on behalf of a group of 11 Member States, is a timely initiative. The non-paper sets a clear course towards a comprehensive steel trade measure to replace the current safeguard regime at a critical moment, as the negative impacts of global overcapacity on the European steel industry continue to grow, says the European Steel Association (EUROFER).
Brussels, 28 July 2025 – The deal on tariffs struck by the EU with the U.S. limits the damage in the current circumstances, but the impact on European steel remains dramatic as long as 50% tariffs are still applied. A potential joint action EU-U.S. to address global overcapacity and a possible return to a tariff-rate quota system for EU exports to the U.S., as hinted at by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, are still vague and lack the necessary details to the bring the economic certainty needed by EU steel producers, says the European Steel Association.
The European Steel Association (EUROFER)
172 Avenue de Cortenbergh
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Email: mail@eurofer.eu
Phone: +32 (0) 2 738 79 20
