EU to impose provisional safeguards to protect electrical steel from imports

By Philip Blenkinsop and Christoph Steitz

BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The European Union will impose a set of import quotas and minimum prices for electrical steel and downstream products, it said on Friday, in a bid to shield the EU from cheap imports, principally from Asia.

The move will benefit Thyssenkrupp's steel unit TKSE and Poland's Stalprodukt SA, among the last European producers of electrical steel, which is used in wind turbines and power grids.

To keep production in Europe going, the EU will establish 'safeguards' in the form of quotas for grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), as well as laminations and transformer cores containing the metal. For the steel itself, the minimum price will be set between €2,800 and €3,400 per metric ton within the quotas and at €3,500 per ton for volumes above them.

"What is particularly significant is that, for the first time, an entire value chain, from electrical steel to the transformer core, is being protected rather than a single product alone," TKSE CEO Marie Jaroni said.

The European Commission launched an investigation into safeguards for GOES in March. The measures to apply from September 25 are provisional, while the investigation continues. Definitive measures, at the end of the investigation, would require a qualified majority of EU members to be imposed.

Electrical steel was not covered by broader measures imposed earlier this year to protect Europe's struggling steel sector, which has come under intense pressure from low-cost competition, including from China.

Thyssenkrupp last year announced temporary production stops at its electrical steel sites in Germany and France as a result of rivals selling excess capacity on the European markets at what sources have said are 25% discounts.

Brussels' move comes as the continent's industry is increasingly calling for better protection against China, the EU's second-largest trading partner after the United States, with automotive, chemicals and steel firms all facing pressure.

Imports of electrical steel from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States have been subject to anti-dumping measures, also in the form of minimum import prices, since 2015. The new minimum prices, while not strictly comparable, are significantly higher than those already in place. They will also apply to downstream products.

China represented more than 50% of EU imports of the steel and its downstream products in 2025.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Louise Heavens)