EU provisional safeguard on grain-oriented electrical steel imports

Importers of grain-oriented electrical steel and transformer cores face a provisional EU safeguard duty from 25 September 2026Europa. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2133, published in the Official Journal on 18 September 2026Tulli, opens specific tariff quotas in relation to imports into the Union of GOES and SLCs for a period of 155 calendar days from entry into forceTulli, and introduces provisional safeguard duties on the same productsTulli. The measures apply for 155 calendar days, until 26 February 2027Europa.

GOES products are the main raw material for SLC products such as transformer and inductor laminations and cores: GOES is cut into laminations and stacked into a core that is then built into a transformer. Both are an indispensable input in transformers, a critical component of electricity grids. The Commission found that a significant increase in GOES and SLC imports was injuring Union producersTulli. The measure also covers steel cores built into transformers imported into the EUTulli.

The regulation opens tariff quotas for GOES and SLC products falling under CN codes 7225 11 00, 7226 11 00 and 8504 90 13Tulli, administered first-come, first-served in the order in which declarations of release for free circulation are acceptedTulli. Country-specific quotas are set for the main suppliers: for GOES, China (30,693.68 net tonnes)Europa, Japan (23,103.61)Europa and South Korea (4,789.93)Europa, plus a residual quota for other countries (5,360.39)Europa; for laminations and cores, Türkiye (14,161.55)Europa, China (4,241.07)Europa and the United Arab Emirates (2,704.99)Europa, plus a residual quota (2,694.36)Europa. Finnish Customs notes that the Finnish text of Article 1(1) contains an error: the quotas are opened for 155 calendar days from entry into force, not for three yearsTulli.

Alongside the quotas, a provisional safeguard duty is hereby introduced in relation to imports into the Union of certain grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel, currently falling under CN codes 7225 11 00 and 7226 11 00Europa, and in relation to imports of steel laminations and cores, whether or not stacked or wound, currently falling under CN code 8504 90 13, whether or not incorporated in the listed transformersEuropa. Annex II creates new TARIC codes for the products coveredTulli.

For GOES and for laminations and cores not built into transformers, the duty equals the difference between the price threshold set in Annex I and the net free-at-Union-frontier price before duty, where the latter is lowerEuropa; no duty is collected where the import price equals or exceeds the thresholdTulli. The threshold is lower inside the quota than outside itTulli. Annex I sets thresholds per TARIC line, for example 2,800 to 3,400 euro per tonne in-quota for GOES grades and 4,000 euro for laminationsEuropa. For a lamination or core built into one of the transformers listed above, the duty is instead a flat 1,140 euro per tonne of the product as incorporated in the transformerTulli; operators must declare the core weight in tonnes in the customs declarationTulli. These transformer-incorporated products are not subject to quotasTulli.

Origin is determined under the Union rules on non-preferential originTulli. Annex III lists the developing countries whose products remain subject to the measuresTulli. Imports originating in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Kenya and Ukraine are excluded from the measures altogetherTulli.

Where imports are subject both to these provisional safeguard duties and to the anti-dumping duties imposed by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/58, the anti-dumping duties will not be levied for the period of application of this regulationTulli, because these duties are lower than the provisional safeguard duties.

Legal basis: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2133, OJ L 18.9.2026 (entry into force 25 September 2026)Europa; Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/58 for the suspended anti-dumping dutiesTulli.