European long steel buyers are facing higher offers from suppliers which hope that prices will increase in the coming weeks, now that the European Commission (EC) has launched its new steel import quotas.
The EC imposed import quotas last year as part of its provisional measures in a trade safeguard case involving steel product imports. That regime was launched in July 2018, but it has now been replaced with a set of definitive measures that apply to 26 steel product categories. Any import volumes that exceed the quotas will be subject to duty at 25%.In the long steel market, the initial provisional quotas were fully taken up several weeks ago, and there has been virtually no import business into Europe since then, in either the rebar or wire rod markets.Although many market participants had expected this situation to result in higher prices for the available material that was produced domestically, prices actually fell slightly in...