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The European Commission has imposed safeguarding measures on imports of certain ferroalloys into the EU, after the conclusion of an 11-month investigation, it announced on Tuesday November 18.
The measures, which come into effect immediately, consist of country-specific tariff-rate quotas per type of ferroalloy, limiting the volume of imports allowed to enter the EU duty-free.
Imports of ferro-manganese, ferro-silicon, ferro-silico-magnesium and ferro-silico-manganese are understood to be included.
Imports exceeding the quota volumes may enter the EU duty-free, if their price exceeds thresholds laid out by the measure. For imports below the established threshold, the applicable duty will be equivalent to the difference between the net free-at-Union-frontier price and the established price threshold for each product.
A document circulated by the World Trade Organization, at the request of the EU, dated November 12, lays out the proposed quotas and prices.
Silicon metal was not included in the safeguarding measure, despite continuing industry concerns about depressed prices for imported material. The document circulated by the WTO said that, during the period investigated, 2019-24, imports of silicon into the EU had not increased.
Also notably, imports from Norway and Iceland, which are members of the European Economic Area but not the EU, will be covered under the measures.
Major ferroalloy producer Elkem has significant operations in those countries and said on Tuesday that it “regrets” the decision not to exempt them, while predicting that lower sales volumes to the EU will be compensated by increased EU market prices and by sales to other regions.
The European Commission will conduct trimonthly consultations with Norway and Iceland, its announcement said, and will carefully review the effects of the measure.
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