Proteccionismo y asfixia en la cadena de valor del acero el impacto de las salvaguardias europeas en los centros de servicio y la industria transformadora española

From Protectionism to Value Chain Suffocation: The Impact of European Safeguards on Steel Service Centers and the Spanish Transforming Industry

Eliana Fernandez Roldan

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: European Union trade defense policy faces a structural contradiction between protecting primary steelmaking and the economic viability of its intermediate industrial value chain. This paper analyzes the macroeconomic and operational impact of Regulation (EU) 2026/1384 introducing a 50% out-of-quota tariff and the Melt and Pour traceability rules in effect since October 2026, focusing on Steel Service Centers (SSC) in Spain. Through a microeconomic lens, it demonstrates how the temporal asymmetry between international transit times (60-90 days) and the volatility of quarterly quotas destroys procurement predictability, suffocates working capital, and inflates financial costs due to customs retention. Furthermore, it models the severe compression of downstream margins (transformation spreads) for local distributors, who are caught between the artificial price inflation of flat coils and the price elasticity of industrial demand. The analysis concludes that blind protectionism triggers a "downstream leakage" effect, perversely encouraging the importation of pre-manufactured components and the offshoring of value-added transformation to third countries outside the Customs Union. Finally, policy reforms are proposed for an integrated industrial policy, including "in-transit" customs exemption clauses and liquidity support for the intermediate transformation fabric.

Keywords: Steel Service Centers (SSC); European safeguards; tariff rate quotas; procurement management; working capital; Melt and Pour; manufacturing offshoring; value chain; steel distribution; trade policy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D0 F2 F4 L1 L5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10-27
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/131601/1/MPRA_paper_131601.pdf original version (application/pdf)

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:pra:mprapa:131601

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().