Séjourné’s plan was received positively by the sector and the EU countries who produce the most steel: Germany produces about a quarter, with Italy coming in second at around 10 percent. France, Romania and Poland each account for more than 7 percent of the European total, based on figures from lobby group Eurofer. The sector is spread widely across the bloc, with just five countries producing no steel.
Post-Covid and in the middle of attempts to get rid of Europe’s decade-long dependency on Russian gas, a fresh dependency on basic Chinese industrial inputs is Brussels’ worst nightmare.
Aside from security, there’s also employment. Ferracci said the French government is “supporting Arcelor’s decarbonization projects, which should help maintain jobs. Now, it’s time for these projects to materialize.”
Some 300,000 people work in the steel industry in the EU, with another 37,000 in the U.K. While that is not much on the total labor market, once you lose steel, it could well spell the end for other much larger industries like carmaking or — indeed — defense and green energy.
“It’s a similar shift [like the pandemic or Ukraine in 2022], but this time it is accelerating to an unprecedented pace,” a Commission official told POLITICO last month, pointing to the trinity of action plans on defense, industry and financing.
Jankowiak, from the Climate Action Network, cautioned against “catchy” applications for steel. “Can production of tanks really create enough demand for steel on an industry level? And in the long term, this would rely on the tanks and artillery shells to be used — in case a war is actually waged. And this is not what we are calling for.”
Nicolas Camut contributed to this report.