Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) today launched the EU Steel TRQ Quota Tracker in the Tools section of its websites. The tracker covers all 283 order numbers of the EU's steel tariff-rate quotas, with balances taken from the European Commission's TARIC quota consultation and synced every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is available in English on metal.com and in Chinese on SMM.cn to users signed in with an SMM account.

Regulation (EU) 2026/1384 has applied to steel imports into the EU since 1 July 2026. Annual duty-free volume is cut to 18.35 million tonnes, about 49% less than under the previous safeguard. Imports above quota pay a 50% duty. Quotas open quarterly and are allocated first come, first served across the EU, split into 283 order numbers covering 26 product categories and 27 named origins.

Under these rules a single order number can run out within days. Q4 2026 quotas opened on 1 October, and by the TARIC update of 8 October 35.9% of the quarter's duty-free volume was used and 45 order numbers were exhausted. The official figures are spread across hundreds of TARIC pages. SMM built the tracker to bring every order's official balance into one place, so exporters, importers and traders can see how much room is left before they quote, plan production or book freight.

Table 1: Main features

1. Sign in on metal.com and open the EU Steel TRQ Quota Tracker from the Tools section; Chinese-speaking colleagues can use the same tool on SMM.cn. The page opens in the language of the site and switches between English and Chinese with one click.
2. Choose a quarter at the top. LIVE marks the current quarter; Settling marks the previous quarter while late declarations are still being allocated.
3. Search the heatmap or the tracker table by origin, product or order number to see the balance, daily draw-down and estimated run-out date.
4. In the out-of-quota cost estimator, enter the planned tonnage and customs value; the tool splits the shipment against the live balance and estimates the duty.
5. Before clearance, click any order number to open its official TARIC page and confirm the latest balance.

Balances come from the European Commission's TARIC quota consultation and are synced every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with extra updates around quarter openings, allocation stops and carry-over. Each update is checked for all 283 order numbers and for consistent values before release. If an update is missed, the page shows a warning rather than presenting old figures as current.

• English Web Page: www.metal.com/resources/tool/9P7bmSw_9ceAT-f3BZqeEQ
• Chinese Web Page: www.smm.cn/resources/tool/9P7bmSw_9ceAT-f3BZqeEQ

Quota duty and CBAM carbon cost apply to the same shipment, so the tracker works alongside SMM's International Steel CBAM Calculator in the same Tools section. For a walkthrough or further steel data services, please contact the SMM steel team: Thomas Chong, thomas.chong@metal.com.

Shanghai Metals Market (SMM)

Steel Research Team

9 October 2026