The European steel industry fully supports the EU’s ambition to accelerate the transition to carbon-neutral steel and the creation of lead markets for low-carbon steel through the future Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), but they “are deeply concerned that IAA would create lead markets for low-carbon steel without any European content requirement. This would risk directing EU public funds to imports, instead of supporting the necessary large-scale investments to decarbonise steel production in the EU”, warned the EUROFER association on Tuesday 17 February in a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Imports of goods containing steel into the EU have risen steadily by over 30% in just ten years. “Downstream criteria such as ‘assembled in EU’ provide no guarantee for demand of EU and low‑CO2 steel”.
The IAA should therefore apply EU preference requirements and low carbon criteria to public procurement and public programmes in the construction and automotive sectors, as well as to private programmes, to stimulate demand for low carbon steel produced in the EU and unlock investment.
There is also a need to “preserve a meaningful definition of European preference for steel, limiting it to steel melted and poured in the European Economic Area. A broad geographical definition of made in EU, would undermine the effectiveness of the requirement”.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/ksb (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)