Completion of EU steel quotas is progressing slowly due to the regulations on tariffs and safeguards developed by the United Kingdom to protect the interests of domestic steel producers. With new decisions on Import and Export policies since mid-2022, and new policies, the UK is subject to delays due to import and export procedures.
A Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) review was initiated for steel products imported into the UK that are subject to the UK steel safeguard and trade remedy measure, as part of the so-called “Trade Solutions Authority (TRA)” initiative launched by the UK earlier this year.
Exceptions to these TRQs can be granted to imports from developing countries, with the policy set, if the goods imported are less than 3% of the total imports of that product and, collectively, these low volume exporters account for no more than 9% of the total imports of that product. Members of the WTO are responsible for managing their own developing country exceptions to TRQs.
Moreover, during the first quarter of this year, the EU Commission and the UK government agreed on a solution to move the most sensitive steel categories subject to tariff rate quotas (TRQs) from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. As a result of the deal, it was decided that Northern Irish companies can now use EU TRQs for steel and gain access to UK steel in these categories.
The Commission stated that this would enable them to avoid paying the 25% tariff on steel imports to the EU associated with the EU safeguards currently in place.
For this reason, all procedures developed within the scope of EU safeguards lead to the prolongation and disruption of the existing import and export processes.
So, as we come to the end of the first month of the second quarter, how is the current situation in the current UK EU steel quotas?
The current quota status for the sheet metal group in the UK has progressed as follows;
5,534/tu of the 33,658/t quota opened for 4A Metallic Coated Sheets was used. 16.44% of the quota amount opened for this product group has been filled yet. The amount remaining from the total quota was 28.124/t.
The total quota amount opened for 4B Metallic Coated Sheets was determined as 33,658/t. By using 5,622/t of this amount, 16.70% of the total quota amount has been filled. The remaining 28,036/t remained.
A total of 33,199/t quota was opened for Organic Coated Sheets. 1.152/t of this amount was used. While 3% of the total quota was filled, the remaining amount was 32,047/t.
The process for the profile group followed as follows;
For Merchant Bars and Light Sections, 4,647/t was used from the quota opened for 111,560/t. 4.17% of the total quota amount was filled and the remaining amount was determined as 106.913/t.
572/t was used from the quota of 4,415/t for Stainless Bars and Light Sections. The remaining 3,843/t quota, of which 12.96% was filled, is expected to be filled later in the second quarter.
A quota of 49.953/t was opened for Hollow sections. Using 6.827/t of this, 13.67% was filled. 43.126/t remained.
Quotas for Seamless Stainless Tubes and Pipes in the Pipe Group made almost no progress
Quotas for Seamless Stainless Tubes and Pipes are quite stagnant. Only 17/t of the 1.779/t quota opened was used. The remainder of the quota, of which 0.96% was filled, was 1.762/t.
A quota amount of 11,070/t was determined for Other Welded Pipes. By using 1.568/t of this amount, 14.16% of the total quota amount has been filled. The remaining amount was determined as 9.502/t.
Slow progress was made using 453/t of the 5,839/t quota for Large welded tubes. The remainder of the quotas, 7.76% of which was filled, was 5,386/t.
Although the products with the highest quota are HRC and CRC, the slow course in both products continues;
9.888/t of the 148,414/t quota opened for HRC was used. While the remaining amount from the quotas, 6.66% of which was filled, is 138,526/t, it is expected to gain momentum in the coming months of the second quarter.
The quota amount determined for the CRC was 83,228/t. By using 14,972/t of this, 17,99% of the total quota amount has been filled. Although CRC is the fastest moving product among other product groups, progress in EU Quotas was slow as we approached the end of the first month of the second quarter. The remaining amount of EU Steel Quotas allocated for CRC was 68,256/t.
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