The best part of sixty top managers of the largest European steelmaking companies have written another letter to the European Council. They want to emphasize the critical nature of the situation in steel sector in advance of the meeting of state and government representatives from the EU countries, including the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, which starts on Thursday, October 20, 2016. The steelmakers are calling on the Council once again to implement powerful measures to deal with the serious problems challenging this sector, especially the issue of market economy status for China, the need to modernize our trade defense tools, as well as the serious concerns raised by the European Commission’s proposal to revise the greenhouse gases Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) after 2020.

October 17, 2016
Open letter by 58 CEOs of the European steel industry to Heads of State and government
 
We, the undersigned CEOs of the EU steel industry, are writing to you ahead of the European Council meeting on 20-21 October.
During this meeting, you will be taking decisions that could help preserve an innovative, sustainable, and globally competitive steel industry in Europe. Making the right choices should ensure that our sector and its value chains flourish, investment continues, and the jobs of the men and women who work in our sector are sustained.
We ask for your support on a number of issues that could make or break our industry:

» Market Economy Status of China: Alignment with the US

A revised EU anti-dumping regulation which includes the EU’s five market economy criteria, with the burden of proof in dumping cases staying with exporters to the EU. We believe the EU’s anti-dumping methodology should be closely aligned with the non-standard methodology applied by the US.

» Trade Defence: More effective, faster measures to re-establish fair trade

EU Trade Defence Instruments are very slow to deploy, compared to our trade partners’. In addition, the effectiveness of the EU anti-dumping instrument is uncertain, producing measures which are significantly below the calculated size of the dumping, often less than a tenth of US measures.
The EU is the only major region to systematically apply the Lesser Duty Rule (LDR). Under certain conditions it must be possible to lift the LDR. These conditions must be achievable and workable, accompanied by a duty calculation based on improved injury margins.

» Emissions Trading: No cost burden beyond economic and technological feasibility

The EU Emissions Trading System is the largest and most ambitious carbon market in the world. The European steel industry is committed to CO2 reductions and is working hard to develop low carbon technologies.
However, we need a reformed EU ETS that is fair and achievable. At present, the proposed EU ETS beyond 2020 creates costs for European steelmakers that are not borne by our global competitors. This risks jobs and investment in European steel. We need an EU ETS that changes how steel is made, not where it is made.
We trust that you can make progress on the above issues so that steel will be able to contribute to the transition to a competitive, low carbon European economy.

Yours faithfully,