The European non-integrated wire rod processors association EUNIRPA has stated that it deeply deplores the inclusion of wire rod in the list of steel products targeted in the safeguard investigation recently initiated by the European Commission (EC). EUNIRPA, at its semi-annual conference in Bucharest, has explicitly called upon the EC to immediately remove wire rod from the safeguard investigation.
Kris Van Ginderdeuren, president of EUNIRPA, stated that the imposition of safeguard measures on imports of wire rod would only serve to exacerbate the persistent shortages in the market and added that the European market continues to remain extremely tight with high prices and low margins for the independent processors represented by EUNIRPA.
According to EUNIRPA, the EC’s concerns that the measures imposed by the Trump administration in the US could divert trade of steel products to the EU do not apply to wire rod. EUNIRPA members are unanimously convinced that the risk of diversion of this product is insignificant because of logistics, standards and many other reasons.