EURANIMI: The European Commission’s new steel plan will wipe out tens of thousands of manufacturing companies

According to EURANIMI, the measures—combined with the new carbon tax (CBAM) on imported steel, which will take effect on January 1, 2026, will raise steel prices by at least %10. This, the association warns, will lead to structural supply shortages and price hikes across Europe’s manufacturing sector.

“An excessive and unbalanced measure”

The association described the proposed plan as excessive, arguing that the combination of halved quotas, doubled tariffs, and the new carbon tax would paralyze tens of thousands of manufacturing companies in Europe. EURANIMI outlined three main consequences of the plan:

• Supply shortages and price increases: Capacity cannot be expanded quickly, leading to bottlenecks across the supply chain.

• Rise in cheap finished goods imports: Machinery, consumer goods, and components produced outside the EU—using cheaper, untaxed steel—will flood the European market.

• Loss of competitiveness for European manufacturers: High production costs within the EU will result in market share losses abroad, accelerating deindustrialization.

“Protect not only steel production, but the entire value chain”

EURANIMI called on the European Parliament and the Council to review the Commission’s proposal and include a “mirror mechanism” for finished goods. Under this mechanism, if imports of finished products containing more than %20 steel exceed a certain threshold, a %50 tax would be applied to the steel content of those products.

For example, a washing machine made up of roughly %60 steel would see only a %1–2 increase in its retail price under such a system—preventing EU-based manufacturers from being unfairly penalized.

Christophe Lagrange, member of EURANIMI’s Executive Board, stated: “Protecting steel production is a legitimate concern, but we must safeguard the entire value chain. We need to think not only of the 300,000 people employed in steelmaking but also of the manufacturing sector, which provides forty times more jobs.”

Another Executive Board Member, Rob Greve, added:

“It is right to protect EU steel production, but not at the expense of manufacturing. Otherwise, we will lose even more production, jobs, and autonomy. A strong steel industry can only exist with a strong European market.”