By Alex MacDonald and Alessandro Torello
LONDON--The European Commission convened its third meeting
Tuesday with senior steel industry executives, trade unions and
European Union lawmakers to deliver an action plan by June to
safeguard the bloc's ailing steel industry as it grapples with
challenging economic conditions.
"At the moment there is excess steel capacity in the
sector....Restructuring has to be anticipated and supported," the
European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio
Tajani said in a speech to mark the start of the third round table
on the European steel industry.
The region has a production capacity of about 210 million metric
tons of steel, but about 40 million tons to 50 million tons remains
unused due to protracted weakness in steel demand. The EU steel
sector has also been buffeted by the need to import all of its
steelmaking raw ingredients and more stringent environmental laws
which makes it cheaper to produce basic steel products abroad.
Mr. Tajani said "The steel sector is absolutely crucial to the
European economy so I will do my utmost to ensure that the European
Commission" implements an action plan to safeguard the
industry.
He said the commission plans to deliver its action plan by June
and urged steelmakers not to take further action regarding steel
plant closures until the recommendations have been made.
The recommendations involve providing funds to help re-train
employees and mitigate the social costs of redundancies and
channelling more funds into research and technology in order to
make the steel industry more competitive.
Europe's steel industry, which employs about 360,000 people and
generates about 170 billion euros ($227.5 billion) in sales
annually, is suffering from anemic steel demand due the frail state
of the region's economy which continues to suffer from the EU
sovereign debt crisis.
EU crude steel demand is nearly 30% below the pre-financial
crisis high of 2007 and is forecast to have contracted by almost 9%
in 2012, according to ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's largest
steelmaker.
ArcelorMittal has responded to weak demand and excess production
capacity by temporarily idling blast furnaces, and announcing the
permanent closure or mothballing of certain loss-making operations
in Belgium and France. In December it took a $4.3 billion
write-down on the value of its struggling European division,
following similar moves by ThyssenKrupp AG (TKA.XE), which recently
announced plans to cut 3,800 jobs and dispose of its electrical
steel operations.
From a policy perspective, the commission will look at what can
be done to avoid setting absolute caps on emissions and energy
production, to ensure the industry remains competitive. It will
also review its trade agreements, with the aim of promoting open
and liberalized trading conditions, while seeking to improve the
efficiency of its internal secondary raw materials market.
The round table includes representatives from 13 EU member
states, including Wolfgang Eder, president of the industry body
Eurofer; Bart Sam, deputy general secretary of labor union
industriAll, as well as senior government officials from Germany,
France, Spain, Italy Belgium and Luxembourg among other
countries.
Representatives from the steel industry include executives from
ArcelorMittal, ThyssenKrupp (TKA.XE), Salzgitter AG (SZG.XE), and
Voestalpine AG (VOE.VI).
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@dowjones.com and
Alessandro Torello at alessandro.torello@dowjones.com
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