【Flash | Mongolia’s Jan–Jul Molybdenum Output Rises 9.3% YoY】

European Commission data released in mid-September 2026 confirmed that multiple third-country steel import quotas were exhausted during the final month of the July 1 to September 30 quota window. India fully exhausted its quotas of 54,334 mt for organic coated sheets and 6,158 mt for welded pipes, while Australia used up its 11,830 mt hot-rolled coil allowance. China also maxed out its 39,484 mt merchant bar quota, forcing importers of these products to either pay steep out-of-quota duties or stockpile material at European ports until October.

The Milan Court of Appeal decisively upheld an order on September 14, 2026, requiring Acciaierie d'Italia (ADI) to shut down its hot-end blast furnaces in Taranto within 90 days due to severe health and environmental infractions. ADI management warned that shutting the facilities risks permanently damaging the blast-furnace cooling systems, potentially making any future restart impossible without massive capital repairs. A permanent closure of Taranto's primary ironmaking capacity would leave Acciaieria Arvedi as Italy's sole remaining domestic hot-rolled coil (HRC) producer.

A newly published legal text for the India-EU free trade agreement reveals that India will secure an additional preferential quota to export 694,853 tons of steel annually to the European Union. This volume is supplementary to India's existing 946,616-ton WTO quota, meaning the combined allocation covers approximately 68.4% of India's 2.4 million tons of steel exports to the EU in 2025. However, the preferential quota does not exempt Indian steel from the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is estimated to average 35% of the import value once fully phased in.