Europe’s wind steel tower industry is facing difficult times. After the EU Commission took anti-dumping\u00a0measures on Chinese steel, prices for heavy plate originating from outside the People’s Republic of China have\u00a0increased by 40% since 2016. As a consequence, European wind steel tower producers production costs have\u00a0increased, leading to a drop in the demand from European customers. \u201cWe’re losing more and more orders to\u00a0Chinese wind tower producers,\u201d said Markus Scheithauer from Germany, EWTA board member, on Wednesday\u00a0June 21st at a conference organized by the European Wind Tower Association (EWTA) at the Press Club in\u00a0Brussels. \u201cWe see the large orders go to the Chinese companies. Wind tower producers in Europe are being left with\u00a0almost nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the side effects of this plunge in demand are already being felt, with many European wind tower\u00a0producers being forced to accept orders below cost. \u201cWe’ve had to fire some people,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda \u00c1vila, from\u00a0Spain, EWTA Board Member. \u201cAnd because we continue to see a negative trend, we might need to lay off more\u00a0people. It’s a really difficult situation for us. And it’s not only the wind tower producers. Also our suppliers are starting\u00a0to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a total installed capacity of 153.7 GigaWatts, wind-tower production now overtakes coal as the second\u00a0form of power production. A new EU directive on Renewable Energy Directive aims to reach a target of 32% of\u00a0energy produced by renewable methods by 2030. In the current environment, a large business potential could\u00a0be lost to Asia if no action is taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing we are asking for is protectionism,\u201d said Gon\u00e7alo Lobo Xavier, EWTA Executive Director. \u201cBut when\u00a0we look at the prices that some Asian companies are offering, it makes one wonder: Are they perhaps receiving some\u00a0form of aid that creates unfair competition with companies in Europe? We don’t know but we think it’s fair to ask and investigate. That\u2019s all what we are asking for, that the EU looks more closely into these points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Created in 2018, EWTA is a Brussels-based association aiming to promote and support the European steel\u00a0towers manufactures and to assure the provision of information, services and guidance to its members in\u00a0areas related to EU and International policy affairs.<\/p>\n
Some of the most affected countries are: Spain, France, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic and Portugal,\u00a0among others. \u201cWe just want a level playing field,\u201d said Lobo Xavier. \u201cIn Europe we care about innovation, quality,\u00a0sustainability, and the respect of social rights. We believe it’s only fair that all producers abide by the same rules.\u00a0That’s part of what a free market is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Europe’s wind steel tower industry is facing difficult times. After the EU Commission took anti-dumping\u00a0measures on Chinese steel, prices for heavy plate originating from outside the People’s Republic of China have\u00a0increased by 40% since 2016. As a consequence, European wind steel tower producers production costs have\u00a0increased, leading to a drop in the demand from European […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5461,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-1114","noticia","type-noticia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gri.com.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticia\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gri.com.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gri.com.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/noticia"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gri.com.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gri.com.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gri.com.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}