5月6日，欧洲钢铁协会（Eureofer）举行了“欧盟钢铁市场和欧盟贸易政策”的“欧盟贸易政策”。
Stating that during the 2012-18 period before US Section 232 and the EU safeguard measures, the EU’s steel imports were more than doubled, while its steel exports decreased by 26 percent, Karl Tachelet, EUROFER’s director of international relations and external affairs, said that multiple EU steel antidumping duties imposed in the period 2012-2017 did not revert the trend of surging steel imports in the EU. EUROFER stated that it believes that the current safeguard measures need to be extended as, in its view, the critical conditions that led the EU to initiate the steel safeguard measures such as protectionism in third country markets, global excess capacity, trade diversion towards the EU triggered by the US Section 232 import tariff having drastically reduced US imports, and the continued risk of serious injury by deviated import surges hitting the European steel industry are still present.
According to a presentation by EUROFER’s director of economic research and market analysis Alessandro Sciamarelli, the EU steel market has experienced the worst economic recession in 2020. Order levels are not back to pre-pandemic levels, except for the automotive sector which recorded its strongest recovery in the fourth quarter last year. Widespread uncertainty in the EU steel market will remain in place at least until the first half this year, he noted.
根据Eurofer的数据，欧盟的原油生产从未从2009年金融危机中经历的损失中恢复过来。欧盟的粗钢材产量在2020年记录了12.1％的下降，2009年下降了30％。同时，欧盟以来，欧盟的表观钢消耗已经下跌，自2019年初以来一直在下降，反映了钢材需求的负面趋势和制造衰退。去年第四季度表观钢材消费量增加了3.3％，继去年第三季度下跌10.4％，自2018年第四季度录制了第一次增长。2020年，欧盟的表观钢材消耗减少了11％, compared to the 13 percent fall in EUROFER’s previous forecast. For 2021, EUROFER said it expects a rebound by 11.7 percent in apparent steel consumption.