Brussels: EU industry commissioner Stephane Sejourne announced that the European Commission (EC) has proposed doubling steel duties to 50 percent to protect producers from low-cost competition from countries like China. Sejourne said in a post on the X platform Tuesday that the Commission has proposed halving the volume of duty-free imports, adding: "This is a re-industrialization of Europe."

According to Qatar News Agency, there are over 600 million tons of excess capacity in the global steel sector. Excess capacity generally refers to goods for which there are no consumers. This issue has become more urgent after the US significantly increased its tariffs.

The European Parliament and EU member states must approve the new rules before they can come into effect. European Union (EU) figures indicate that the majority of steel imports to the bloc so far come from Turkiye, South Korea, India, Vietnam, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Germany, Europe's largest steel producer, is suffering from declining demand for steel, particularly in the automotive industry.