The UK has eight weeks to save its steel industry, Tata Steel director of markets business development, Russel Codling, told a parliamentary business and trade committee meeting on Tuesday.
Import quotas need to be halved from 1 July or "we are just left exposed as the dumping ground of the world" for its excess supply, Codling said, suggesting China exported 119mn t of steel last year, a new record. This is almost the same as the 140mn t consumed in the whole EU, and way above the 90mn t consumed in the US, he said.
Codling pointed to the imposition of 50pc tariffs in the US — although the UK has a 25pc tariff into the US — and the EU reducing its import quotas and increasing the out-of-quota tariff to 50pc. "Frankly speaking... the UK government has two months in which to save the UK steel industry," he said, adding having no protections would be the "death" knell for the industry and its supply chains.
Tata is engaging with the Department for Business and Trade and the ministers associated with it on quotas, but said progress is not "quite as fast" as the company needs, with July quickly approaching.
Some sell-side sources suggested the amount of access the UK can get to the EU plays a part in how much it needs to reduce its own import quotas — the bigger the market for UK mills in the EU, the easier it is for them to effectively utilise their rolling lines. Codling told the committee the UK has leverage in its negotiations with the EU, because it buys twice as much as it sells to the continent.
UK quotas have already been reduced over 2025. The most notable reduction came in June, when the government overruled a Trade Remedies Authority recommendation and imposed a 15pc cap on the other countries' quota for hot-dip galvanised (HDG), causing big problems for the two main suppliers — Vietnam and South Korea. At the same time, it exempted Turkish HDG from the measure, because there were no shipments. These have since increased dramatically, to over the 3pc World Trade Organisation threshold, meaning they could come into scope of the other countries' quota from 1 April.
Tata has also been pressing for a multi-origin dumping case on HDG, which sources anticipate will start in the coming months.
The International Steel Trade Association is trying to secure exemptions for material that Tata cannot or does not produce, such as hot-rolled coil over 2m wide and certain gauges of HDG.
