Europe’s heavy industry, meanwhile, is hanging by a thread. Already clobbered by high energy costs, the metallurgical sector is now bracing for a new assault: a flood of cheap Asian metal coming into Europe after U.S. President Donald Trump increased tariffs on global imports of steel and aluminum.
The move has reignited a trade war between the two jurisdictions that led the EU to retaliate with its trade “sledgehammer” to protect its domestic economy.
Then there’s the pressure to go green. Few jurisdictions have climate rules as stringent as the EU, and compliance is costly and complicated for polluting industries like steel. Reusing old metal is one of the easiest ways for heavy industries to reduce their environmental footprint.
But global demand for the secondary stuff is booming, and so are market prices. A ton of steel scrap costs about €300 on the global market these days, and can go as high as €1,800 for aluminum. Buyers from overseas, where energy is cheaper and green rules can be less onerous, can often afford to pay more than European companies.
Now manufacturers are pushing hard for Brussels to intervene and ensure more metal scrap stays in Europe, hoping it will increase supply.
“Scrap leakage creates a missed opportunity for Europe’s decarbonization, strategic autonomy, and competitiveness ambitions,” the directors of Eurofer and European Aluminium, Europe’s biggest steel and aluminum lobbies, told the European Commission in a letter last December.
