EU slashes South Korea's cold-rolled stainless steel quota by nearly 50%

• EU's total cold-rolled quotas halved to around 496,000 t from over 1 mnt
  
  
• EU introduces country-wise allocations for hot-rolled products, plates
  
  

SteelDaily: The European Union (EU) has revised its steel tariff rate quota (TRQ) regime, reducing South Korea's country-specific quota for stainless steel cold-rolled (CR) products by 49% while introducing dedicated quotas for hot-rolled (HR) stainless steel and plates for the first time.

Under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1457, effective from 1 July to 31 December 2026, imports exceeding allocated quotas will attract an additional 50% tariff. Although quotas are published on an annual basis, they will continue to be administered quarterly.

The annual country-specific quota for South Korean stainless steel cold-rolled products has been reduced to 101,884 t, down 48.9% from 199,290 t under the previous safeguard regime. For the second half of 2026, the available quota stands at 50,942 t, with 25,471 t allocated in each of the third and fourth quarters.

Meanwhile, the EU has allocated South Korea an annual quota of 20,735 t for stainless steel hot-rolled products and 2,061 t for stainless steel plates, replacing the previous system where these products relied solely on global quotas shared among multiple exporting countries.

The revised framework also introduces Free Trade Agreement Common Specific Quotas (FTA-CSQ). South Korea will be eligible to access these common quotas only after exhausting its country-specific allocation and will compete with other eligible FTA partners on a first-come, first-served basis. For cold-rolled stainless steel, the annual FTA-CSQ volume is 39,741 t, while hot-rolled products and plates have common quotas of 11,225 t and 1,114 t, respectively.

The EU also reduced overall stainless steel safeguard quotas across product categories. Total cold-rolled quotas declined to around 496,000 t from over 1.06 million tonnes, while hot-rolled quotas fell to 153,000 t from 440,000 t.

Note: This article is published as part of a content exchange agreement between SteelDaily and BigMint.