Members of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity (GFSEC) have reached consensus on a new Comprehensive Framework for Joint Action to address rising global steel excess capacity and its impact on steel industries.
Ministers and senior representatives met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and agreed that global steel excess capacity is expected to increase from 601 mln tons in 2024 to 745 mln tons by 2028, reaching its highest level in a decade. They said further collective action is needed despite increasing trade remedies and other measures taken by individual members.
Under the framework, members intend to reduce market-distorting subsidies and other government support that contribute to persistent excess capacity, while promoting market-based adjustment and the exit of uneconomic capacity. They also plan to strengthen steel trade monitoring, including through collection and publication of country-of-melt-and-pour data to identify suspicious trade patterns and potential circumvention.
The framework also calls for members to undertake protectionist measures where appropriate. Members also intend to cooperate in detecting circumvention and monitor trade diversion resulting from trade measures imposed by individual members.
GFSEC ministers additionally tasked the forum with collecting and exchanging information on non-market policies and practices in non-member economies that they consider harmful to the steel sector and with identifying possible actions to address their root causes. The forum will review implementation of the new framework and report progress at its next ministerial meeting.
The Ministerial Statement lists participants including the EU, US, UK, Turkey, Japan, Korea, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand and Viet Nam, among others.
The GFSEC was established in 2016 as an international platform for steel-producing economies to develop collective solutions to excess capacity and improve market functioning. It is facilitated by the OECD, which provides technical and analytical support to the forum.