Brussels – Europe’s industrial competitiveness passes through its steel, and the coming European Commission will have to act decisively to support a sector already in crisis and challenged by the sustainable transition. Companies in the sector are not backing down, but they are asking for guarantees. One above all: financial support. “We need public subsidies for the convergence process,” says Mario Arvedi Caldonazzo, vice president of Eurofer and CEO of Arvedi SpA, at the debate organised in the European Parliament.
Global overproduction, led by China, is behind a slow haemorrhage that saw a 30 per cent reduction since 2008 and led to the loss of nearly 100,000 jobs. This is compounded by a European agenda that is rightly but overly ambitious for the steel industry. “The question I want to ask the new Commission,” the Eurofer vice president continues, “is if we still want a steel industry. If the answer is “yes”, then we need an action plan for the steel industry quickly.”
This action plan passes along at least two paths: trade and energy. The first involves a muscular decision toward China. Because, Caldonazzo explains, “China’s steel industry is state-owned, and this is unfair.” Against this policy of unfair competition, “we have to take action to review the guarantees and possibly prepare for tariffs.” So, duties.
As for the production aspect, Eurofer number two continues, “decarbonisation means electrification.” Therefore, “if we don’t have a competitive electric market, especially from a cost perspective, we will fail, and we will not have any green transition.” A contribution to the reasoning that the European steel industry has already started and is about to produce a document for a “review” of the European electricity organization. A document that Arvedi Caldonazzo anticipates and will deliver to the new EU executive.
The invitation is to “think less European” than we have done so far. “I am a proud European, but I envy the United States,” confides the Eurofer vice president. Across the Atlantic, he explains, “When they decide to grow, they grow; when they want to invest, they invest, and they do it with pragmatism, without ideologies.” A message for Ursula von der Leyen, outgoing and incoming president of the European Commission.
While the European steel industry finds support from the twelve-star policy, the same policy maintains a cautious approach to financial support. It is true, acknowledges EPP MEP and member of the European Parliament’s Industry Committee, Christian Ehler, that “pragmatism is needed,” but “the illusion that public contributions are the answer to all problems” must be rejected. A criticism of Mario Draghi and his report, with calls for public debt bonds to finance the EU’s big-picture revival of economy and competitiveness. “We need a European capital market,” insists the EPP member, who does not see the public solution as the priority.
The vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s Industry Committee, Giorgio Gori (PD/S&D), offers broader support. “The time for a steel action plan is now.” A call for the next Commission to present it and for Parliament to support it. He admits that “it will not be easy to find all the resources the EU needs,” and that for this “it becomes crucial to set priorities,” and in this sense there is no doubt for the Socialist exponent that “steel is a priority.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
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