The United Kingdom's Trade Remedies Authority has announced that it will review the suspension of safeguard import quotas on hot rolled coil in anticipation of Tata Steel UK's plan to decommission two blast furnaces later this year.
With plans to bring its EAF (electric arc furnaces) back into operation in early 2027, Tata Steel will import steel products for its buyers from its operations in the Netherlands and India or from third parties during this period.
Sources report that a reduction in hot rolled flat and coil steel production is foreseen and will need to be managed. At the same time, reviews of the suspension of quotas for the UK economy will reportedly take place in parallel with discussions between Tata Steel UK and workers' unions.
Tata's new EAF in the UK is expected to have a capacity of 3 million mt/year, while its existing blast furnaces have a capacity of 5 million mt/year but have produced 3.2 million mt in the last few years.
Claims that these quotas could be suspended were seen as well received by the market.
Plans also include whether it would be appropriate to change the allocation methodology to allocate TRQs to importers on an individual basis. The suggested plan would not tie quotas to a single country and importers would be free to choose their source of imports.
Much like the EU's safeguard import quotas on steel, the UK's quotas were due to expire on June 30 and it was unclear whether they would be extended by two years.
Comments
No comment yet.