The Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) represents a timely and welcome initiative to foster climate neutrality by accelerating industrial decarbonisation and to support the development, competitiveness and resilience of the Union's manufacturing sector. EUROFER strongly supports the Act’s objective of creating lead markets for low-carbon steel as a critical tool to unlock the massive investments needed for the green transition of the European steel industry and facilitate the market uptake of low-carbon steel.

The direction of the IAA is correct, however, the current proposal falls short in its ambition creating demand signals for low-carbon steel made in the EU. Without robust Union origin requirements linked to steel originally melted and poured within the EU, public procurement and support schemes risk being met by imported steel, undermining decarbonisation investments in Europe. The proposal must also raise the demand for low-carbon steel quantities predictably, and ensure consistency across instruments.

EUROFER calls on the co-legislators to strengthen the IAA with the following recommendations: 

1.    Introducing mandatory Union origin requirements (based on steel originally melted and poured in the EU for low-carbon steel in public procurement and public support schemes.
2. Adopting a single, consistent definition of Union origin across all relevant articles to prevent circumvention and market confusion. Only steel originally melted and poured in the EU should qualify, including for the automotive CO2 emission performance standards credits.
3. Greater ambition and broader scope in public procurement and public support schemes: Raise minimum shares to at least 50% low-carbon Union-origin steel, applied to 100% of support scheme budget allocations, and extend requirements to NZIA technologies and strategic components.
4. Swift, effective and efficient low-carbon steel labelling to support transparent lead markets.
5. Allowing flexible designation of Acceleration Areas to cover geographically dispersed industrial sites.
6. Include strategic sectors such as wind, and components made from electrical steels in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) screening.
7. The ‘energy intensive industry’ definition should not be conditional on being in an acceleration area.

These improvements are essential to match the steel industry’s decarbonisation ambitions, secure long-term competitiveness, and deliver on the EU’s climate neutrality and strategic autonomy objectives. 

Read the full position paper in the link below.