London — European steel association Eurofer raised its 2017 EU steel demand forecast on Monday, but said isolationist measures such as a US plan to levy steel tariffs on national security grounds could be disastrous for global trade flows. Eurofer said apparent EU steel demand, which includes inventory changes, will rise 1.9% in 2017 to 159-million tonnes. It previously forecast that demand, seen as a gauge of regional economic health, would rise 1.3%. Despite the raised forecast, the association issued its starkest warning yet about potential import distortions, saying the region’s mills could again fail to benefit from demand growth and instead lose market share to imported steel. "With no structural solutions for the underlying problem of global overcapacity in sight, the number of protectionist and even isolationist measures look set to increase," director-general of Eurofer Axel Eggert said. "In particular, measures potentially stemming from the US section 232 investigation may...
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