On 17 December 2021, the European Commission published a Notice of initiation of a review of the safeguard measure applicable to imports of certain steel products.
The steel safeguard measure was imposed in January of 2019 and subsequently reviewed in 2019 and 2020. To assess whether the measure should be prolonged past its initial expiry period of three years, the European Commission initiated a third review in 2021, leading to its extension for a further period of three years.
As a Ukrainian exporting producer of product category 22 (“Seamless stainless tubes and pipes”), Centravis is greatly affected by this measure and therefore cooperated during all stages of the safeguard proceedings. At every stage, Centravis has strongly opposed the steel safeguard measure in their current form and level.
Centravis submits that the continuation of the measures in their current form and at the current level is not justified in view of the current market conditions when the import is not growing, demand is stable, the delivery time of all European producers has grown longer, and all European producers of product category 22 have increased their prices for 2022. This is unacceptable for a downstream industry, which supplies such specific and demanding customers as nuclear, automotive, chemical and power generation companies, which work based on long-term contracts and require regular and guaranteed supplies of products.
«In the past four years, the rationale supporting the imposition of the steel safeguard measures has gradually eroded. We consider that the volume of imports of the product concerned has continued to decrease. Also, the expected operation of the Global Sustainable Steel Arrangement reached between the US and the EU on 31 October 2021 presents a clear risk of harm to the Union interest and its customers», commented Igor Marfut, Head of Sales Germany.
Therefore, if the steel safeguard measure was to be withdrawn, sufficient trade defense measures are in place to mitigate sporadic undue increases in imports of the product concerned from certain countries found to engage in unfair trade. There is no need to continue to apply safeguard measures to other countries that trade fairly, including Ukraine.
