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Europe’s steel industry is vital to the EU’s industrial strength and long-term competitiveness. It also supports a crucial packaging ecosystem that provides essential goods to consumers across Europe. We must protect both.
Packaging sits at the heart of Europe’s steel value chain, bringing together manufacturers, brands, and recyclers to deliver essentials including canned food, baby formula, coffee, pet food, and household items such as paints, aerosols and oils. These are products that millions of Europeans rely on every single day.
The European Commission’s proposed EU Steel Measure aims to protect the steel sector from unfair trade practices and strengthen the EU’s industrial base, goals we fully support. However, in its current form, it will harm key downstream industries such as steel packaging and slow progress toward a circular economy. Most importantly, it risks making everyday essentials more expensive.
Steel packaging sits at the centre of this concern. It moves through well-established recycling loops and maintains a direct and trusted connection with consumers. This successful circular model, which already achieves an 82 percent recycling rate in Europe, should be protected and strengthened, yet today it faces a serious threat.
Under the current proposal, quotas and tariffs would be imposed on tinplate, the thin steel sheet used in packaging such as food cans and aerosols. This measure will halve import volumes and significantly increase costs for thousands of small and medium-sized steel users, including packaging manufacturers. These extra costs will reach the supermarket shelf, increasing prices for consumers at a time when many are already struggling with a severe cost-of-living crisis. Recent surveys confirm that inflation and rising prices remain the top concerns for Europeans.
Please click here to read the complete opinion piece published by Euractiv.