European Steel Industry Threatened with Collapse Due to Chinese Imports and Trump's Tariffs

SadaNews Economy - European steelmakers have warned that the sector faces the risk of collapse under the pressure of cheap Chinese products and the high tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, urging Brussels to impose tariffs similar to those in the U.S. on all metal imports.

Ilse Hinze, a senior executive at the German company "Thyssenkrupp," told the Financial Times: "We need protection, otherwise we won’t be able to survive as a steel industry."

The European steel sector was already struggling to compete with low-cost Chinese imports and high energy prices, even before Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Europe’s steel exports to the U.S. earlier this year. The U.S. tariffs on other countries, particularly China, have also raised concerns about an influx of more cheap steel into the European market after it was shut out of the U.S. market.

Hinze, as the head of the supervisory board of the steel division at "Thyssenkrupp," declined to specify the appropriate level of tariffs on imports to the European Union but warned that the volume of imports is still rising despite weak domestic demand.

France and ten other European countries had previously proposed imposing a 50% tariff on imports exceeding a certain threshold with the aim of halving their volume.