Ilse Henne, a senior executive at Germany’s Thyssenkrupp, stated to the Financial Times: “We need protection; otherwise, we will not survive as a steel industry.”
The EU steel sector was already struggling to compete with cheap imports from China and high energy prices even before the US president imposed a 50% tariff on steel exported to America earlier this year. Trump’s tariffs on China and other countries have heightened fears that the EU market will be flooded with cheaper metals redirected from the US.
Henne, chair of Thyssenkrupp’s steel division supervisory board, declined to suggest an appropriate tariff level for steel imported into the bloc, but warned that imports are still rising even though domestic demand remains weak.
France and ten other EU member states had previously proposed that a 50% tariff should be applied beyond a certain quota to cut imports in half.
Henne argued that other key European industries, such as car manufacturing, rely on high-quality European-made steel.
She emphasized : “Do we want to manufacture cars in Europe? Yes or no? Do we want to produce them with European steel? Yes or no? And if for many reasons the answer is yes… then we need to make some decisions.”
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