Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, the steelmaking subsidiary of Thyssenkrupp, is urging the European Commission to take action to protect domestic electrical steel production from a surge of low-cost imports from Asia. Marie Jaroni, head of the division, stated on Wednesday that the group welcomes the Brussels authority's initiation of a safeguard investigation into grain-oriented electrical steel. This represents a critically necessary first step. "The priority now is to act swiftly and implement effective protective measures," she emphasized. She added that production sites, jobs, and technological expertise can only be secured in Europe over the long term if fair competitive conditions are maintained.

At the end of March, the European Commission announced the launch of an investigation into trends regarding grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that import trends into the EU may necessitate safeguard measures. The Commission is currently examining these findings.

Thyssenkrupp's steel division had already taken emergency measures at its Electrical Steel subsidiary in late March due to the flood of cheap Asian imports. After the subsidiary temporarily halted production at its Gelsenkirchen site and its Isbergues facility in France at the turn of the year—with Isbergues operating at only 50 percent capacity since January—the French site will now be completely shut down from June to September. "Given the ruinous glut of imports in the grain-oriented electrical steel market, we see no alternative to a further temporary closure of our French site," Angelo Di Martino, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel, said at the time.

Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe and Poland's Stalprodukt SA are the only remaining producers of this material in Europe. The largest exporters to Europe include China's Baowu, South Korea's Posco, and Japan's Nippon Steel.

(Report by Matthias Inverardi, edited by Olaf Brenner. For inquiries, please contact our editorial office at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)