Final figures for 2018 show that the EU28 steel market grew by 3.3%. The preliminary safeguard measures could not prevent third country imports from rising by 12.6% and, as a consequence, local steel producers being flattened by deflected and cut-price steel products from outside the EU.

Meanwhile, the relaxation of the final safeguard measures – with an enlargement of 5% in February this year with another upwards revision of 5% scheduled for July – is completely out of step with the anticipated decline of the EU steel market in 2019. As such, the 10% increase in import quota allowed in the final safeguard measures risks squeezing the EU steel sector, as it will be exposed to rising import pressure in a depressed market.