EU scrap exports proposals slammed in Germany

Three recycling organisations in Germany have added their voice to concerns that the European Union could introduce export restrictions on steel and metal scrap.

The German Steel Recycling and Disposal Association (BDSV), the German Association of Secondary Raw Materials and Waste Management (bvse) and the German Association of Metal Traders and Recyclers (VDM) have written jointly to the European Commissioner for competition, Teresa Ribera.

In an intervention which echoes other organisations such as BIR, the associations criticise the current discussions in Brussels as being a ‘massive intervention’ in functioning recycling markets. Specific policies such as the new Waste Shipment Regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Act, and the European Steel and Metals Action Plan are seen as amounting to restrictions or ultimately a ban on scrap exports to third countries.

Destruction

‘They’re pretending that structural and cost problems in the primary steel industry can be solved by restricting the sales markets of the recycling industry, even though there’s no shortage of scrap metal at all,’ says BDSV md Guido Lipinski. ‘It’s simply an attempt to drive down market prices.

‘Anyone who over-regulates functioning scrap markets not only endangers thousands of medium-sized businesses but also risks destroying a functioning circular economy. That would do significantly more harm than good to the European steel industry.’

Short-sighted

The associations warn against export restrictions being seen as a solution to the competitive problems of individual industries. What is needed, they argue, are reliable and investment-friendly conditions to enable additional recycling capacities, higher quality products and innovative technologies, especially in light of the transformation towards ‘green steel’.

Bvse md Eric Rehbock says that companies that have been practicing genuine circular economy principles for decades are now supposed to pay the price for short-sighted industrial policy.

‘Instead of expanding recycling capacities, Brussels is sending the signal that investments in modern processing and sorting technology are a risk because markets can be shut down politically at any time. That is the opposite of a secure future for the transformation.’