Europe’s steel industry association Eurofer has asked the EU’s executive Commission to monitor and possibly act against countries outside the bloc that restrict exports of raw materials such as scrap, saying such barriers are unfair.
"We have recently sent a letter to the Commission saying that they should monitor those countries who are restricting exports of scrap and other raw materials and then possibly apply some measures against this," Eurofer’s Axel Eggert told Reuters.
"We want to have a level playing field because this is harming our industry."
Eggert did not name countries that were retaining scrap for their own use but an economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said about 30 countries restrict scrap exports.
These included Ukraine, Russia, Vietnam, Venezuela and Argentina, said Barbara Fliess, senior economist in the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD.
Eggert said Eurofer, which says it represents 100 percent of EU steel production, has not suggested any specific measures and has not asked for any restrictions of scrap exports from the bloc.
"That would be difficult under EU law and it’s not in our policy to ask for this kind of restrictions," he said.
He said that there had been calls from other European bodies to keep the EU’s raw materials and scrap metal for its own use.
"There are discussions within the EU institutions, and they are not coming from Eurofer, to achieve a close loop in Europe that includes raw materials and scrap."
PROTECTIONISM FEARS
Members of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) said last week that European steelmakers, including some top producers, were pressuring the EU Commission to impose export restrictions on steel scrap from the EU to help preserve their domestic raw material stocks.
The head of Italy’s steel industry body Federacciai, Antonio Gozzi, also told a news conference earlier this week that the association is considering requesting the introduction of duties on exports of scrap steel from Europe, on which the local industry depends for about 60 percent of supplies.
Members of BIR, which groups scrap and recycling businesses around the world, described the issue of export restrictions as alarming, very dangerous and unnecessary.
"There is ample scrap in Europe for domestic steelmakers," Tom Bird of Dutch company Van Dalen Recycling said during a recycling conference last week.
The BIR non-ferrous metals board also expressed concern over the visible growth in protectionist moves. To fight this trend it has commissioned a study, initially focused on aluminium and copper scrap consumption in the different countries and its flows around the world.
