Challenges for the European steel industry: Analysis, possible consequences and impacts on sustainable development

Stefan Vögele, Matthias Grajewski, Kristina Govorukha and Dirk Rübbelke

Applied Energy, 2020, vol. 264, issue C, No S0306261920301458

Abstract: The steel industry in the European Union (EU), important for the economy as a whole, faces various challenges. These are inter alia volatile prices for relevant input factors, uncertainties concerning the regulation of CO2-emissions and market shocks caused by the recently introduced additional import duties in the US, which is an important sales market. We examine primary and secondary effects of these challenges on the steel industry in the EU and their impacts on European and global level. Developing and using a suitable meta-model, we analyze the competitiveness of key steel producing countries with respect to floor prices depending on selected cost factors and draw conclusions on the impacts in the trade of steel on emissions, energy demand, on the involvement of developing countries in the value chain as well on the need for innovations to avoid relocations of production. Hence, our study contributes to the assessment of sustainable industrial development, which is aimed by the Sustainability Development Goal “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation countries”. By applying information on country-specific Human Development Indexes (reflecting aspects of life expectancy, education, and per capita income), we show that relocating energy-intensive industries from the EU may not only increase global energy demand and CO2-emissions, but may also be to the disadvantage of developing countries.

Keywords: Energy-intensive industry; Steel industry; Competitiveness; Floor prices; Energy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920301458
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:264:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920301458

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114633

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().