From Friday steel importers will need a concession to bring steel into the country. Unfortunately they can only apply for it as from today. This may be very counter productive. Some steel works are warning that they may find themselves unable to operate due to a raw materials shortage whilst white goods manufacturers could find themselves without sheeting. Huta Ferrum, for example, needs to import steel in order to manufacture pipes. It brings in around 50,000 tons annually and it cannot buy this steel on the domestic market. Without this steel the mill cannot function.
Buying manager Robert Kazimierczak of Bosch Siemens in Łódź also complained of a lack of notice and the impossibility of finding sheet metal for their operations. The company is unable to find sheet metal of suitable quality in this country.
This situation has no doubt been caused by the current conflict between the EU and USA on steel. It is very unfortunate that so many manufacturing jobs will now be lost at such a difficult time only in order to introduce more red tape.