European importers of long steel and hot-rolled coil have claimed that this week's definitive decision in the EU steel imports safeguard case review ignored the interests of independent buyers and focused protection only on steelmakers, market sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 1.
The European Commission (EC)
presented its definitive decision in the safeguard case on June 30. The adjusted measures include stricter controls over some steel products.
Long steel products
Although the EC has not changed its quota systems for either rebar or wire rod imports, it has introduced restrictions on access to residual quotas.
The EC established that those countries that have exhausted their country-specific quotas would be able to access the residual quota in the final quarter of a period. The authorities have also set up three regimes for access to the residual quota.
Importers of product category 16 - wire rod will not have further access to the residual quota when the year ends. And limited access will be given to product category 13 - rebar.
"Importing is becoming hell," one source in Northern Europe told Fastmarkets.
The access regimes to the residual quota for all product categories created one of...