Raw materials | Brussels, 18 April 2016

Today, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström is participating at the OECD high level symposium on excess capacity in the steel sector. Hosted in Brussels by the Belgian government and the OECD, this meeting is bringing together ministers, senior officials and private sector representatives from around 30 countries including the EU, China, Japan, the WTO, and the OECD, in order to seek solutions to the overcapacity crisis.

This afternoon, the Commissioner is participating in an intergovernmental roundtable, where she is outlining the challenges the European steel industry faces and ways of addressing them.

The steel industry in Europe is world-leading in certain steel product segments, represents 1.3% of EU GDP and provided around 328,000 jobs in 2015. Despite the potential of the European steel sector and the significant efforts made to innovate and modernise, its competitive position on the global steel market has deteriorated in recent years. Excess production of steel in third countries such as China has increased exports, depressed prices, and given rise to an unprecedented wave of unfair trading practices, distorting the global level playing field.

Read the Commissioner’s intervention at the roundtable

Excess Capacity and Structural Adjustment in the Steel Sector

Statement on Excess Capacity and Structural Adjustment in the Steel Sector