The EU's revised steel safeguards took effect July 1, cutting annual duty-free import quotas to 18.35 million tonnes. South Korea's country-specific quota was reduced by 19.7% to 2.07 million tonnes. To offset the impact, Seoul plans to stimulate domestic steel demand by strengthening cooperation with shipbuilding, defense and renewable energy sectors, which is expected to generate over 510,000 tonnes of additional steel demand. Korea also intends to continue EU negotiations under the FTA framework while expanding into new export markets to reduce reliance on Europe. Under the new quota system, five countries including Turkey, India, Japan, South Korea and Ukraine secured around 2.74 million tonnes/year of duty-free allocations in category 1A (HRC), representing 53% of the total quota. The overall HRC quota was cut by 59%, with Turkey's quota falling about 60% while Japan's rose roughly 24%.

Since the start of the year, growth in the European solar market has slowed markedly. SMM expects total new solar installations in the European market to fall to around 68.5GW in 2026, a year on year decline of about 2 percent. Alongside softening demand, multiple EU level supply chain restriction policies continue to advance, including the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA), the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), and restrictive measures targeting inverters from so called high risk countries.

In yesterday's [SMM Analysis] EU Steel Tariff Wall Doubles to 50%: Reconstructing the New Quota System & In-Depth Analysis of 1A HRC, SMM deeply analyzed the brutal allocation logic of the EU's new 18.35 million tonnes quota. When the "50% tariff wall" and the "melting and pouring" rules completely block traditional tax-free export paths, the global steel supply chain is undergoing a forced reshuffle. Today, we shift our perspective to the ripple effects and macro-level forecasts of this storm.

New country-by-country quotas reward South Korea's balanced access and Indonesia's hot-rolled position, while Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Turkey face a tighter squeeze once melt-and-pour disclosure rules bite from October 1.

On 1 July 2026, the EU replaced the steel safeguard measures implemented since 2018 with a significantly stricter import quota system—this is not merely a continuation of the old policy, but a complete reconstruction of its underlying logic: the core objective has upgraded from "preventing trade diversion" to "targeted defense against high carbon and excess capacity."

Under the EU's new steel safeguard measures, Turkey, India, Japan, South Korea, and Ukraine have collectively secured around 2.74 million tonnes per year of duty-free allocations in product category 1A (HRC), representing 53% of the total quota volume. The current duty-free quota for HRC stands at 5.2 million tonnes/year, a 59% reduction from the previous 12.6 million tonnes/year. Turkey saw its quota drop from 1.59 million to 642,000 tonnes/year (down 60%), while Japan's volume rose 24% to 551,500 tonnes/year. Ukraine received 483,500 tonnes/year. The new system also creates supplementary quota pools for FTA and non-FTA countries.