Observed in millions of euros, the export of steel from Serbia to the world in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period last year, increased by about six percent, while the export to the EU fell by about two percent.
The United States and the European Union have announced that they will begin negotiations on the abolition of tariffs on steel and aluminum, which Washington introduced during the presidential mandate of Donald Trump. This could lead to the abolition of quotas and reduction of customs duties for our exporters, the Smederevo ironworks and the Uzice rolling mill, but it does not necessarily mean that.
In a joint statement, the US Trade Representative and the European Commission said they remained committed to engaging in these negotiations quickly to find solutions before the end of the year that would show how the US and EU can address overcapacity and ensure the long-term sustainability of the steel and aluminum industries. Their common goal is to end the dispute before the World Trade Organization, which was initiated by the EU, after several unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement with the Trump administration.
In June 2018, the United States imposed a 25 percent tariff on European steel and 10 percent on European aluminum, citing national security concerns. The EU has included countermeasures for US exports worth 6.4 billion euros. In addition, in order to protect its steelworks, the EU has introduced quotas on steel imports from third countries, including Serbia.
Bojan Stanic, assistant director of the Sector for Strategic Analysis of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, says that the international market is very networked, so disruptions in one part of the world can more or less affect the business of individual countries, regions and even foreign trade.
In terms of the steel trade, it was limited by tensions between the world’s leading economies, which resorted to protectionist measures in order, conditionally speaking, to protect domestic production of strategic importance.
According to him, the abolition of customs duties that the previous administration in Washington imposed on the EU is a good sign, but the question of restrictions related to Chinese steel is raised.
As a reminder, after the USA included additional customs duties on the import of industrial metals from China, larger quantities of raw materials were redirected to the EU, which, according to Brussels, significantly endangered production in EU members, which were less competitive in terms of prices.
“In that direction, the abolition of customs duties on the US-EU route does not necessarily mean that restrictions on steel exports from Serbia will be removed soon. What is worrying is that in the economic conflict, in terms of unconventional competitive competition in the global market, the US and the EU can be seen as one side, which in some way opposes China’s growing global influence, especially in Europe,” Stanic thinks.
Our interlocutor emphasizes that Serbia is trying to point out to European partners the need to reconsider the decision to limit steel exports, and the warming of economic relations between Washington and Brussels provides additional arguments in the direction of further liberalization of the international market.
Observed in millions of euros, the export of steel from Serbia to the world in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period last year, increased by about six percent, while the export to the EU fell by about two percent.
In terms of total steel exports, according to Stanic, the EU market receives about 80 percent of raw materials from Serbia, and the most important export markets are Italy, Bulgaria and Poland. HBIS Group’s exports are still affected by EU quotas, but the company remains one of Serbia’s leading exporters.
As stated in the latest issue of the bulletin “Macroeconomic Analysis and Trends”, the value of the trend in the production of basic metals from the beginning of 2013 to May 2019, has increased 2.7 times. Experts point out that the main factor in this growth was the entry of the Chinese HBIS group into the ownership of the ironworks.
US anti-dumping duties on imported aluminum sheet apply to 18 countries: Serbia, Bahrain, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Oman, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Greece and the South. Korea.
The American tariff on the import of aluminum sheet since March is 25.84 percent instead of 11.67 percent, as it was foreseen by the preliminary decision from October last year, and it significantly affected our only exporter “Impol Seval”, an aluminum rolling mill from Uzice, which sells processed alloys of this metal to the US market.
When it comes to aluminum, Trump’s customs and the crisis caused by the corona virus have already reduced exports to America by almost 90 percent. Sales of processed aluminum on this market in 2017 were negligible to jump significantly in 2018 and especially in 2019, when aluminum worth 20.8 million euros or 8,200 tons was exported. However, due to last year’s restriction of the Trump administration, only about a thousand tons worth about two million euros were sold on the market there.
For the sake of comparison, two years ago, America was on the third place when it comes to the export of our aluminum, and now it is on the nineteenth, Politika reports.
