{"text":[[{"start":14.79,"text":"European steelmakers are urging Brussels to impose US-style tariffs on all imports of the metal, warning the industry risks collapse under pressure from cheap Chinese products and Donald Trump’s high duties."}],[{"start":29.63,"text":"“We need protection [or] we are not going to survive as a steel industry,” Ilse Henne, a senior executive at Germany’s Thyssenkrupp, told the Financial Times."}],[{"start":40.73,"text":"The EU’s steel industry was struggling to compete with cheap imports from China and high energy prices even before the US president slapped 50 per cent tariffs on their exports to America earlier this year. Trump’s duties on other countries, particularly China, have raised fears that the EU will be flooded with more cheap metal diverted from the US market."}],[{"start":66.46,"text":"Henne, chair of the supervisory board for Thyssenkrupp’s steel division, declined to suggest what tariff level would be appropriate on steel brought into the bloc, but warned that imports were still increasing even as domestic demand remained sluggish."}],[{"start":84.08999999999999,"text":"France and 10 other EU member states have previously suggested a 50 per cent duty should apply beyond a certain quota in an effort to halve imports."}],[{"start":96.78999999999999,"text":"Other key European industries such as carmaking rely on high-quality European-made steel, Henne argued."}],[{"start":105.22999999999999,"text":"“Do we want to produce cars in Europe? Yes or no? Do we want to produce them with European steel? Yes or no? And if that is what we want for many reasons . . . then we need to take some decisions,” she added."}],[{"start":121.82,"text":"Europe’s steel sector is among the critical heavy industries that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has focused on as she attempts to reverse the bloc’s wider economic decline."}],[{"start":133.04999999999998,"text":"EU steelmakers were forced to make 18,000 job cuts in 2024, according to trade body Eurofer, adding to the 90,000 laid off since 2008."}],[{"start":145.69,"text":"The commission has promised to set out a new safeguard measure for the industry this month but has yet to provide details. It introduced 25 per cent duties on steel imports in 2019, during Trump’s first term. But the regime has since been progressively relaxed."}],[{"start":165.62,"text":"In 2024, the EU imported 28mn tonnes of steel, a quarter of total sales, and double the amount in 2012/13, when China became a big exporter, Eurofer said. The sector expects to lose most of the 3.8mn tonnes it exports to the US annually as a result of Trump’s tariffs."}],[{"start":192,"text":"France and the other 10 member states, which include Italy and Spain, also want a US-style “melted and poured” rule that would prevent Chinese steel being routed through a third country to avoid duties."}],[{"start":206.03,"text":"The commission had hoped to lower US tariffs on steel and aluminium as part of the EU’s framework trade deal with Washington, agreed at the end of July, but they remain in place. Both sides pledged to continue negotiations on how to deal with global overproduction."}],[{"start":224.42000000000002,"text":"However, steelmakers do not believe there will be quick progress."}],[{"start":229.15,"text":"“It is highly doubtful that any [tariff rate quota] or significant exemptions will be granted by the US in the near future, if at all,” Eurofer said in a letter this month to Von der Leyen, seen by the FT."}],[{"start":244.69,"text":"“Effectively, the EU steel industry is the worst off of all EU industries,” said the letter."}],[{"start":251.38,"text":"Eurofer wants a system of duty-free import quotas for products the bloc needs, but believes that above certain levels a prohibitive tariff should be applied. "}],[{"start":262.43,"text":"“A highly effective, capacity-related EU steel trade measure will both secure a viable European steel industry succeeding to decarbonise and demonstrate to the US that the EU is playing its part in ringfencing against global overcapacity,” it added."}],[{"start":281.16,"text":"Olof Gill, the commision’s deputy chief spokesperson, said: “The commission intends to adopt by the end of this quarter a regulation limiting the amount of steel which can be imported into the EU.”"}],[{"start":296.1,"text":"He added that it was in discussions with the US on “a tariff rate quota solution for EU exports of steel and aluminium, and their derivative products”."}],[{"start":308.59000000000003,"text":"Thyssenkrupp and its steel division — once a pillar of Germany’s industrial strength — are in the process of a painful restructuring. The company has announced plans to slash capacity at its steelworks and reduce the headcount by 11,000. "}],[{"start":333.75000000000006,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftmailbox.cn/album/a_1757298928_2235.mp3"}