Secondary students still learn in the history class that the first European Union was built around steel and coal. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, ratified at that time by the “Europe of Six” (France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries). Three quarters of a century later, coal production has greatly disappeared from the European land. Does steel now face the same destination?
The verdict is clear: since 2008, the production of steel in the European Union has fallen by 30%, reaching its lowest historical level, while almost 100,000 jobs have disappeared in the steel industry, according to Worldsteel figures, the Global Steel Prodes association. Some consider that the industry is in survival mode, while others, even more pessimistic, say it is on the verge of extinction. “In 10 years, the production of steel in Europe fell from 7% of the global production to 4%,” Stéphane Séjourné, executive vice president of the European Commission and commissioner in charge of prosperity and industrial strategy, recalled in March.
There are multiple reasons behind this decrease. The low -cost Chinese overproduction is flooding the European market, suffocating local steel manufacturers. From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the prices of energy in the intensive energy industries of the thesis of Europe, which makes them less competitive than their Asian competitors, the Middle East or the North. Finally, the markets are being reduced, with the 25% increase in customs tariffs for European steel and aluminum imported to the United States, announced by Donald Trump on April 2.
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