Ten symbolic coffins stood in front of the European Commission's office in Brussels on 7 September and the trucks launched the horn. The steel manufacture demands protection against imports of finished products from Asia. For Poland, factories, workplaces and the ability to manufacture components for automotive, household appliances, energy and defence are at stake.
Coffins for factories, jobs and knowledge
The protest was organised by the European Steel Distributors Federation EUROMETAL. The Berlaymont building was preceded by representatives of manufacturers, distributors, service centres and processors, including a delegation from Poland. 10 coffins symbolized the production capacity, jobs and industrial cognition that Europe could lose. Then the trucks entered the European district, and the organizers passed on the demands to representatives of the European Commission.
The form of protest was strong, but the problem is even more serious. The Union shall defend natural and partially processed steel through quotas, trade defence instruments and the CBAM mechanism. Steel-containing finished products frequently stay beyond comparable loads. The European company pays for energy, emissions, environmental standards, reporting and individual protection. A non-Union competitor may process steel at home and then send the finished product to the common marketplace without an equivalent weight.
Import grows, production disappears
EUROMETAL analysis of steel derivatives shows the increase in imports of the audited group from 3,77 million tonnes in 2010 to 8,05 million tonnes in 2024. These include car parts, electrical machines, metallic furniture and prefabricated structures. EUROMETAL president Alexander Julius estimated that imports of this group were increasing from 4th to 4th by about 2.6 percent, and European manufacture could lose around 300 000 direct jobs this year.
Piotr Sikorski, president of the Polish Union of Distributors of Steel and associate of the EUROMETAL Council, indicated that the effects are already visible in Poland. Companies shut down production lines or quit manufacturing for import and assembly. This is simply a mechanics known from many sectors: first the country loses its production, then its competence, and yet its ability to respond independently to the crisis. Pressure of EU climate policy on Polish cement plants shows that the problem goes far beyond steel.
Commission created an uneven pitch
Brussels likes to talk about strategical autonomy, resilience of supply chains and green transformation. However, its own regulations reward the relocation of production outside Europe if the finished product returns later through a gap in the system. Emissions don't disappear. European factories and salaries disappear.
The manufacture is not demanding another wave of subsidies. He wants to extend trade defence instruments and CBAM to steel derivatives and products with a advanced content of this natural material. It besides calls for stricter rules on the determination of the origin of steel and the wider application of the Made in Europe criterion in strategical defence, energy and infrastructure procurement. This is simply a reasonable starting point, although the Polish government must guarantee that European preferences do not in practice imply the dominance of the manufacture of the largest countries.
Poland needs its own industrial base
For Poland steel is not an abstract position in the trading table. It is dependent on construction, railway, energy, automotive and defence production. A country without steelworks, processing and skilled workers becomes a client of another factories. He pays more in peacetime. In the crisis, it may stay undelivered.
Record copper prices open a chance for the Polish industryBut natural materials alone are not enough. We request home processing, inexpensive and unchangeable energy and public procurement supporting production in Poland. The European Commission should close the gap it has created. In turn Warsaw has a work to guarantee that the rescue of European manufacture starts besides in Polish plants.
Source: EUROMETAL, PAP, Bankier.pl, RMF FM.
Source: Bankier.pl
