News Room - Trade Measure

Posted on 22 Sep 2026

The EU is introducing temporary safeguard measures on imports of electrical steel

The issue concerns quotas and minimum prices; the European Commission’s investigation into these products is ongoing

The EU is set to introduce a series of import quotas and minimum prices for electrical steel and products made from it, in order to protect the bloc’s market from cheap imports. This is reported by Reuters.

This move will benefit Thyssenkrupp’s steel division and the Polish company Stalprodukt SA, which are among the last remaining European producers of electrical steel used in wind turbines and power grids.

To support manufacturing in Europe, the EU will take the following steps:

• quotas for grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), as well as for magnetic cores made from thin insulated sheets and transformer cores containing this steel.
• a minimum price for these products ranging from €2,800 to €3,400 within the quota limits, and €3,500 per tonne for volumes exceeding those limits.

In March this year, the European Commission launched an investigation into imports of electrical steel at the request of three Member States (Germany, France and Poland). The current proposal will come into force on 25 September and is provisional, as the investigation is ongoing. An exemption is also provided for a number of countries, including Ukraine.

Electrical steel was not covered by the broader measures introduced this year.

Imports of these products from China, Japan, the Russian Federation, South Korea and the USA have been subject to anti-dumping measures since 2015, specifically in the form of minimum import prices. ⁠The new prices, whilst not strictly comparable, are significantly higher than those currently in force. They will also apply to processed products.

As a reminder, in April, Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe called on the European Commission to take measures to protect European electrical steel production from cheap imports from Asia.

At the end of March, the company announced that it was extending production cuts at its Isbergues site in northern France, citing a devastating influx of imports into the European market. The plant, which specialises in the production of grain-oriented electrical steel, had already been operating at half capacity since January 2026. In the spring, it was announced that production would be completely halted between June and September.

As reported by GMK Center, in April 2026, ArcelorMittal France announced the production of the first coil on the new electrical steel production line at its site in Mardik.

Source:GMK Center