The European Commission has imposed a provisional safeguard measure on imports of certain grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), citing a sharp increase in imports and serious injury to EU producers. The measure will apply for 155 days from September 25, 2026, through February 26, 2027.
The measure establishes country-specific tariff-rate quotas of 30,693.68 tons for China, 23,103.61 tons for Japan, 4,789.93 tons for South Korea and 5,360.39 tons for other countries.
Imports below specified price thresholds will face a safeguard duty equal to the difference between the threshold and the import price. For GOES, the in-quota thresholds range from EUR 2,800-3,400 per ton (USD 3,215-3,904), depending on grade, while the out-of-quota threshold is EUR 3,500 (USD 4,019) per ton.
The Commission said imports of GOES and steel laminations and cores increased 120 pct between 2021 and 2025, while GOES imports alone reached 227,396 tons in 2025. EU GOES producers lost 35 pct of their market share, while profitability of domestic sales fell from 8.4 pct in 2021 to 3.6 pct in 2025. GOES imports undercut EU prices by 14.2 pct in 2025.
The safeguard will operate alongside existing anti-dumping measures on GOES from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US. Existing anti-dumping duties include ad valorem rates of 21.5-39 pct, depending on producer and origin; where these duties are lower than the provisional safeguard duty, they will not be collected during the safeguard period.
1 USD / 0.87 EUR