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The European steel industry welcomes the Commission proposal for the ‘Clean Steel - Low Carbon Steelmaking’ European Partnership
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The European steel industry welcomes the Commission proposal for the ‘Clean Steel - Low Carbon Steelmaking’ European Partnership
EUROFER, The European Steel Association, and ESTEP, the European Steel Technology Platform, welcome the proposal of the Commission for a co-programmed European Partnership on Clean Steel – Low Carbon Steelmaking.
The European steel community is fully committed to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and to helping to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the EU’s target of reducing domestic CO2 emissions by 80% to 95% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. We believe that the partnership proposal represents an important step forward towards the demonstration of low-CO2 technologies in steelmaking and our future contribution to the meeting of the targets.
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The outlook for the European steel market in 2024 continues to lose momentum amidst persisting challenging conditions. Downside factors such as worsening geopolitical tensions, coupled with growing economic uncertainty, energy prices, inflation, interest rates have further impacted demand prospects. According to EUROFER’s latest Economic and Steel Market Outlook, these challenges have exacerbated the negative effects on apparent steel consumption, resulting in a more severe downturn in 2023 than previously projected (-9%, instead of -6.3%) and weaker growth in 2024 (+3.2%, instead of +5.6%). Output in steel-using sectors, despite showing more resilience than expected in the past year (+1.1%), is now set to decline (-1%). Imports are once again on the rise (+11% in the last quarter of 2023), capturing a staggering 27% market share throughout 2023.
Second quarter 2024 report. Data up to, and including, fourth quarter 2023
Brussels, 22 March 2024 – The future of a strong and resilient EU can only be forged with steel made in Europe. Europe-made low-carbon steel has a strategic role as it enables a net-zero economy, but today it faces strong headwinds from high energy prices, unfair competition, global overcapacity and growing unilateral carbon costs. The year 2023 has recorded the lowest European crude steel production levels ever, with a number of idled plants and dire impact on workers. Ensuring the enabling conditions for the short-term viability and the decarbonisation of the steel sector urgently needs to be at the top of the EU agenda. This is the message delivered by the European Steel Association together with a number of high-level representatives of the sector on the occasion of the Clean Transition Dialogue on Steel in the presence of the Executive Vice Presidents of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič and Margrethe Vestager.