SMM7, March 8: according to foreign media reports, Marcegaglia Chairman and CEO Antonio Marcegaglia (Antonio Marcegalia) in a letter to Antonio Tajani (Antonio Teguia) and outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (Jean-Claude Juncker) made it clear that "there is no stainless steel invasion from Indonesia." It is reported that the letter is in response to a document written by Antonio Tajani to the European Commission on March 27, in which he pointed out that "there has been an abnormal increase in the number of stainless steel arriving in the European Union from Indonesia."

The Italian entrepreneur (Antonio Marcegaglia) explains that demand for stainless steel coils in Europe has recently increased and is forecast to increase by 3.5 per cent in the next few years, so restricting the purchase of stainless steel from abroad could pose a lot of problems for European companies.

Like Marcegaglia, we often buy materials from the only European manufacturer-Acciai Speciali Terni (AST), however, AST can only meet 1/3 of our company's needs, so we are forced to go abroad to obtain these materials, he said. Marcegaglia imports 90 per cent of black stainless steel coils and 60 per cent of hot stainless steel coils.

According to Marcegaglia, import data must be assessed as a whole because in the first five months of 2019, material from Indonesia increased by 33000 tons, while material from China decreased by 16000 tons and by 24000 tons in the United States. Overall, total imports of stainless steel hot rolls are down 10% compared with 2018.

Antonio Marcegaglia believes that there is no invasion of stainless steel in Indonesia, on the other hand, further restrictions on foreign supply will not only fail to help European producers, but will also undermine the important reality of industries such as Marcegaglia.