The European Commission has opened an investigation into whether rising imports of grain-oriented electrical sheets (GOES) are harming EU producers and whether temporary limits on imports should be introduced.
GOES are specialised steel sheets used in equipment such as power transformers, which move electricity from power stations to users including factories and households, the Commission noted in a release on Friday.
EU manufacturers are facing “unprecedented difficulties” linked to heavy import pressure from non-EU countries, particularly China, and wider global overcapacity in steel production.
If the inquiry finds that increased imports have caused “serious injury” to EU industry, the Commission may propose safeguard measures, with the impact on transformer makers — the main users of GOES — also to be assessed.
Possible timeline and products covered
Provisional measures could be imposed after four or five months if the conditions are met, while any definitive measures would need to follow within 200 days after provisional steps — and usually within nine months of the investigation starting, or up to 11 months at most, according to the same statement.
Any safeguards would require the backing of a qualified majority of EU member states.
The investigation also covers laminations and cores, which are processed from GOES and then built into power transformers.
GOES already face EU anti-dumping duties on imports from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, but they are not covered by existing EU steel safeguard measures or a post-safeguard proposal on steel imports.
Current anti-dumping duties are set as specific charges linked to a minimum import price per tonne, but market prices have risen above those minimum levels over time, meaning the measures no longer provide sufficient relief to EU producers.
