The latest round of first-quarter earnings calls to U.S. refiners and upstream producers was nearly unanimous…
Germany and the Netherlands have been granted the right to a large export quota of steel to the United States from January 1, 2022, after the United States ended the current Section 232 import tariff regime on steel from the European Union under a bilateral agreement, according to documents published in Germany and the Netherlands.U.S. Department of Commerce website.Quotas in Sweden and Austria are also seen as clearly beneficial for some products.
Germany, the EU’s largest steel producer, received the lion’s share of the region’s annual tariff quota (TRQ) for exports to the US, at 3.33 million tonnes.Germany will have the right to export a total of 907,893 metric tons of various products, according to a list.Its quota includes 121,185 tonnes of tinplate, 86,221 tonnes of cut-to-length sheet and 85,676 tonnes of line pipe with an outside diameter exceeding 406.4 mm per year.
Italy, the EU’s second-largest steel producer, has a total quota of 360,477 tonnes, well behind Germany, and the Netherlands has a total quota of 507,598 tonnes.The Netherlands is home to Tata Steel’s main IJmuiden mill, a traditional exporter of HRC to the US.
The Netherlands has an annual quota of 122,529 t of hot rolled sheet, 72,575 t of hot rolled coil and 195,794 t of tinplate to the US.
The tariff-rate quota system will replace the existing 25% tariff on EU steel imports imposed by former US President Donald Trump in March 2018 under Section 232 legislation.Total annual imports under tariff quotas are set at 3.3 million tonnes, covering 54 product categories, allocated on an EU member state basis, in line with the historical period 2015-2017, the US Department of Commerce said.
“The split is a simple calculation to bring TRQs closer to traditional EU export flows to the US (per member state),” said a spokeswoman for European steel association Eurofer.
However, the United States continues to impose Section 232 tariffs on steel imports from other countries, even though the United States and Japan are currently in bilateral negotiations on alternative trade arrangements.
However, according to a source in the German plate market: “German tonnage is not much. Salzgitter still has high anti-dumping duties, which Dillinger may benefit from. Although Belgium has a small quota, But so is Industeel. NLMK is in Denmark.”
The flats sources were referring to tariffs on cut-to-length or processed flats by some European flats makers: the US imposed anti-dumping duties on several producers in 2017.
The annual TRQ for Austrian hot-dipped flat products is 22,903 tons, and the TRQ for oil well pipes and tubes is 85,114 tons.Earlier this month, Herbert Eibensteiner, chief executive of steelmaker voestalpine, called the country’s U.S. quota level “perfect for Austria”.Eibensteiner said voestalpine continued to export to the U.S. despite the “high administrative burden” facing voestalpine to obtain exemptions and an annual tariff of 40 million euros ($45.23 million) for exporting pipelines to the U.S. oil and gas sector.
Some of the larger national quotas include 76,750 t for cold rolled sheet and other products in Sweden, 32,320 t for hot rolled coil and 20,293 t for hot rolled sheet.Belgium’s quota includes 24,463 tonnes of cold rolled sheet and other products, 26,610 tonnes of hot rolled sheet, 13,108 tonnes of plate and 11,680 tonnes of stainless flat rolled products.
The Czech Republic’s tariff quota will allow the export of 28,741 metric tons of standard rail, 16,043 metric tons of hot rolled bars, and 14,317 metric tons of line pipe with an outer diameter of up to 406.4 mm per year.For cut-to-length plate, France received a TRQ of 73,869 t, Denmark 11,024 t and Finland 18,220 t.France also received 50,278 tonnes of hot rolled bar.
Greece received a TRQ of 68,531 metric tons for pipelines with an outer diameter of more than 406.4 mm.Luxembourg received a quota of 86,395 tonnes for sending angles, sections and profiles to the US, and a quota of 38,016 tonnes for sheet piles.
A trade source expects EU imports of US-origin rebar totalling 67,248t, which will not have a major impact on the Turkish rebar export market.
“Tosyali Algeria is one of the players who cut Turkish rebar to the US,” he said, adding that while Tosyali rebar does impose a 25% tariff on exports to the US, they also have no anti-dumping and countervailing duties , so buyers in the US have booked rebar outside Algeria.
The Commerce Department clarified on its website that tariff-rate quotas will be calculated for each year of the measure and administered on a quarterly basis.Any unused TRQ volume in the first quarter of this year, up to 4% of the allocated quota for that quarter, will be carried forward to the third quarter.Any unused TRQ volume in the second quarter of this year, subject to the same restrictions, will be carried forward to the fourth quarter, and any unused TRQ volume in the third quarter, subject to the same restrictions, will be carried forward to the next the first quarter of the year.
“Tariff quotas will be allocated to each product category in each EU member state on a first-come, first-served basis. The U.S. will provide on the public website an update on quarterly quota usage for each product category, including information on tariffs that will not be used. The amount of quota is transferred from one quarter to another,” it said.
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