Asian competition is killing EU aluminium producers
FACE President Conserva: “Draghi is right, too many regulatory disparities”
EU rules are killing SMEs, said Mario Draghi when presenting his report on competitiveness. An appeal for realism and pragmatism that finds our important support.
“Asian competition in the aluminium sector is putting European SMEs under severe pressure. The main causes are the much lower production costs in countries like China and India, thanks to lower wages, less stringent environmental regulations and state subsidies to the industries. This has enabled Asian manufacturers to offer aluminium parts and semi-finished components at significantly lower prices than their European counterparts”, explained President Mario Conserva.
Among the critical issues to be resolved are import duties on raw aluminium from non-EU countries, which force SMEs in the sector to operate with narrow margins, thus finding themselves competing in an environment where they cannot further lower costs without compromising quality or sustainability.
Worsening the picture are the stringent environmental constraints imposed on companies operating in the EU. Which, explains Conserva, “while crucial for the ecological transition, impose heavy economic burdens on companies”. The disparity between European and Asian regulations creates, as Draghi has also pointed out, an imbalance in competitiveness. “SMEs”, continues Conserva, “are the backbone of the European economy and this pressure could lead to the closure of many of them or the relocation of production, with serious consequences for employment and the local industrial fabric. In this scenario, an effective political response should be, in addition to the abolition of duties on imports of raw aluminium, to rethink the current Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) set up by the European Commission, transforming it from an environmental duty as it basically is today, to a stimulus to industrialisation on the example of the American Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)”.
Only through a combination of protective policies, including for example better and faster anti-dumping measures, and a strengthening of domestic production capacities, FACE President concluded, “can the European aluminium industry hope to remain competitive in the face of aggressive Asian competition”.
