EU imposes provisional safeguard duties on electrical steel until Feb 2027

Importers of grain-oriented electrical steel and transformer cores face provisional EU safeguard duties from 25 September 2026Europa. The Commission has imposed a 155-day provisional safeguard measureEuropa, running until 26 February 2027Europa, on certain grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel (GOES) and on steel laminations and cores (SLCs), whether or not stacked or wound — including SLCs incorporated in transformersEuropa. The measure combines country-specific tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) with a specific duty equal to the difference between an established price threshold and the net free-at-Union-frontier price, before duty, whenever the import price is below the thresholdEuropa; no duty is collected where the import price is equal to or higher than the thresholdEuropa.

The product scope covers GOES under CN codes 7225 11 00 and 7226 11 00Europa and SLCs under CN code 8504 90 13Europa, with SLCs incorporated in transformers (CN codes 8504 21 00 through 8504 34 00 as listed in Article 1(3)) also caughtEuropa. The Commission expressly extended the measure to cores inside imported transformers to prevent the duty being sidestepped through the downstream product; the steel core is incorporated but not absorbed, so it can be identified there. Operators presenting transformers for release for free circulation must declare the weight in tonnes of the core in the transformerEuropa, and cores in transformers pay a flat 1 140 EUR per tonne of incorporated productEuropa with no quota availableEuropa. All other quotas are administered first-come, first-served, with the threshold differing in and out of quota.

The price thresholds in Annex I are set per TARIC line: GOES lines carry 3 400, 3 100 or 2 800 EUR per tonne in quota depending on the lineEuropa, against 3 500 out of quotaEuropa; laminations 4 000 in quotaEuropa and 4 550 outEuropa; cores 5 000 in quotaEuropa and 5 600 outEuropa. Quota volumes run to 26 February 2027Europa: for GOES, China 30 693,68 tonnesEuropa, Japan 23 103,61 tonnesEuropa, Korea 4 789,93 tonnesEuropa and other countries 5 360,39 tonnesEuropa; for laminations and cores, Türkiye 14 161,55 tonnesEuropa, China 4 241,07 tonnesEuropa, the United Arab Emirates 2 704,99 tonnesEuropa and other countries 2 694,36 tonnesEuropa. Countries holding more than 5 % of imports over the last three years received country-specific quotas; the residual quota goes to other suppliers in order of accepted release declarations. New TARIC codes in Annex II split GOES by core-loss band and SLCs into laminations and cores.

Excluded are imports originating in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Kenya and UkraineEuropa, and the developing-country exemptions in Annex III apply per product typeEuropa. For imports also subject to the anti-dumping duties of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/58, those duties are not levied while this Regulation applies, because they are lower than the provisional safeguard duties.

The background the Commission gives is stark: total imports of GOES and SLCs rose 120 % between 2021 and 2025 while Union production fell 9 % and the Union industry's market share dropped from 66 % to 43 %; China held 53 % of 2025 imports, followed by Japan at 20 % and Türkiye at 13 %. The Commission points to global overcapacity, US Section 232 tariffs diverting flows toward the still-open Union market, and Chinese VAT rebates favouring SLC and transformer exports. Critical circumstances were found: one Union producer temporarily ceased production at one plant, and any delay would cause damage difficult to repair.

Legal basis: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2133 imposing a provisional safeguard measure on GOES and SLCsEuropa, adopted under Regulation (EU) 2015/478 and Regulation (EU) 2015/755, entering into force on 25 September 2026Europa.