The EU steel and metal action plan due this week is set to focus action on cutting energy prices, fixing some of the bloc’s carbon border tariff shortcomings, and promising trade shields and lead markets, according to two slightly different drafts of the action plan seen by Euractiv.
Europe’s steel and copper production can cover the bulk of the EU demand, but that’s not the case for aluminium and nickel, for which EU-based producers can only meet 46% and 25% of Europe’s needs, respectively, according to the drafts, which remain subject to further revisions and changes prior to publication.
“All these metals are essential for defence,” both texts notes.
Energy measures
The commission is consulting with EU countries on a “clean flexibility” state aid tool “based on [Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)] and industry committing to consume clean electricity,” the drafts say.
The papers call on EU member states to use all the options available under EU energy and state aid rules to cut costs for energy-intensive industries, and promises a number of further guidance documents.
One such document will lay out conditions for anticipatory investments in grid projects, while another details possible cuts to energy network tariffs for the metal sector and other energy-intensive industries. Both are tentatively expected to be released in the second quarter of 2025.
The commission will also “propose facilitating grid access to energy-intensive industry electrification projects” by then, say the drafts of the action plan seen by Euractiv.
The drafts differ, however, on the way forward to extend the norm allowing governments to compensate industries for the carbon cost embedded in the electricity they use.
In the one available here, first published by Table Media, the Commission promises to “work towards making this instrument permanent post-2030,” but a second version seen by Euractiv ensures “adequate measures” instead.
Carbon border levy
The draft plan also anticipates various changes to the EU’s carbon border levy, known as CBAM, which adds a carbon price on imported goods such as cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen.
The draft promises that the commission will propose a “solution” to fix the competitiveness disadvantage faced by European products exported to countries that have weaker climate rules than the EU.
This will take the form of a non-binding communication in the second quarter of this year, according to one of the drafts, while the other promises to “address the problem” without adding details.
The commission will also propose a CBAM anti-circumvention strategy and the extension of the mechanism to “certain steel and aluminium-intensive downstream products” in the fourth quarter of this year, according to the drafts.
Safeguards
The draft plan also promises new trade tools to shield the bloc from global steel overcapacity, set to be published by the third quarter of 2025 at the latest.
The EU’s current shield against excessively cheap steel imports is set to expire in June 2026, but the document says it’s “unreasonable” to expect the issue to disappear by then.
On the contrary, the EU stands ready to use trade defence tools to defend the protect EU aluminium producers recently hit by US tariffs.
One of the drafts announces the launch of an investigation for safeguards in the aluminium sector, while the other says that the Commission “stands ready to launch an investigation for safeguards in the aluminium sector immediately after the substantiated request is made”.
The drafts of the plan suggests that a ferroalloys safeguard investigation will be conducted “expeditiously”.
It also promises actions to boost circularity and the uptake of clean metals thanks to lead markets.
“Lead markets, both public and private, will show the way for a broader adoption of low-carbon metals as the market standard,” both versions of the document read.
[BTS]
