Tommaso Sandrini, chairman of Assofermet Acciai, the steel service center and distributor division of Assofermet, the Italian association representing steel and scrap distributors in the local market, has issued a statement to clarify Assofermet's position regarding the European trade regulation system.
In relation to requests made by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) to the European Commission for new import duties, Mr. Sandrini stated that there would be a threat of total market closure. While he said Assofermet agrees with every move to fight unfair Chinese imports, it opposes all protectionism that involves other countries.
Proceeding with protectionism against other countries apart from China would create a dangerous oligopoly that would cause a lot of volatility in the market with speculative behavior, Mr. Sandrini stated. The European steel industry would also lose the incentive to carry out R&D and end-users would have to pay high prices as in the US, with negative consequences for the engineering industry. In the meantime, the chain of independent distributors would disappear since only integrated distributors and service centers would be able to survive the high prices.
As regards the future, Mr. Sandrini called for reasonable measures which would take into account the whole supply chain, recognizing the roles of each part of the chain.