Steel market

Europe’s steel industry against Dumping from China

Europe Stahlkocher see their industry at risk. Thousands Stahlmitarbeiter protest in Brussels against Dumping of products from China. Beijing appeases and affirms its Overcapacity.

So often it is not that workers in overalls and Manager in a fine suit together go out on the street. Also, it is not often that a Protestzug protesters from 17 countries combined: from Germany such as Romania, France or England as from Slovakia. Was In Brussels on Monday, and it went to a powerful adversary: China. The protesters fear for their Jobs due to Dumping from China.

Overproduction in China: steel mill in Beijing

The hard core of the demonstrators in Brussels form the steel workers. Your industry is by the Chinese practices particularly affected. “China’s government financed Dumpingexporte after Europe poured billions”, according to a spokesman of the Industriebündnis AEGIS Europe, 30 European industry associations representing. “The Goods will be under cost of goods manufactured sold to competitors out of the market.” In the EU, have already hundreds of thousands of jobs cost.

China produces more than half of the steel in the world. Industry experts estimate that the Overproduction of China per year for 340 million tons. This is a Multiple of the total demand in Europe. In China itself is increasing because of the mauen growth rates of the economy the demand for steel. The Surplus entering the world market. In the last year alone rose Stahlexporte China by 50 percent.

Bilanzlöcher and Stellenverlust

The European manufacturers are suffering from it. The French Stahlriese ArcelorMittal closed the past year with a record loss: The decrease amounted to more than seven billion euros. The leader now needs assistance in billions of dollars. The German Stahlriese ThyssenKrupp reported for the last quarter is also a loss. In the UK strokes Tata steel after Millionenverlusten 3,000 jobs – 15 percent of the workforce.

In view of the alarming Figures sent recently, Germany and six other countries a Brandbrief to the EU-Commission and urged them to take Action. The domestic industry is necessary to fight against “unfair trade practices” to be protected, it was said in the Letter.

In fact, it was Brussels last week active. For certain steel products, the EU Commission, China, and Russia, with import duties. It concerns the so-called cold-rolled flat-rolled steel. In three other steel products from China initiated the Brussels authority in Anti-Dumping investigations. So, it should be determined whether foreign products in Europe to an artificially low price to be sold.

Tata-steel mill in the United Kingdom: thousands of Jobs axed

The Point Of Contention Marktwirtschaftsstatus

This stands for the European Industriebündnis AEGIS is already clear: in the end, were about three-quarters of all anti-dumping measures of the EU against dumped imports from China. The Brussels Protest from Monday aiming for, especially on the Plan of the EU, China later this year, the commercial of the so-called Marktwirtschaftsstatus to grant. This would be effective anti-dumping measures in the future impossible, so AEGIS. This makes the Alliance three million jobs in Europe are in danger.

The same Horn blows, the Europe chief of Tata Steel, Karl-Ulrich Köhler: “With a government-financed steel industry such as in China, where the costs are not through the sales prices are covered, we can’t compete.” They wanted no gifts, but a level playing field, said Köhler to the German “Handelsblatt”.

Steel workers Protest in Brussels

A “collaborative challenge”?

The Chinese government on the other hand, in the Overcapacity in the steel sector a “community challenge the whole world”, according to a notice from the Außenhandelsministeriums from the weekend. The government had already “high cost of a series of concrete measures are introduced to reduce Overcapacity, which are already beginning to show impact,” they said in the statement from Beijing. European experts point out that these planned cuts in at around 150 million tons in the next five years, and thus far, under the current Chinese excess capacity of 340 million tons annually.

On the posters of the protesters in the Brussels EU district las you accordingly on the Monday afternoon, the Slogans like “stop China Dumping”. And the France boss of the steel giant ArcelorMittal has been even more dramatic: “We demand from Brussels, us from the Chinese threat to protect,” said Philippe Darmayan in the Morning the French station BFM Business.

ar/iw (rtr, dpa, afp, Handelsblatt)