Global Fastener News

European Fastener Distributor Association (EFDA) president Dr. Volker Lederer denounced the European Commission’s likely imposition of provisional antidumping duties on iron and steel fasteners from China, saying such a move would imperil fastener supply to the European Union, Fastener + Fixing Magazine reports.

Within the next few weeks, the EC will decide whether to impose provisional duties on Chinese fasteners after initiating an AD investigation last December. 

“High capacity utilization, raw material shortages and shipping problems have already thrown international supply chains into unprecedented chaos, making it impossible for European fastener distributors to supply European industry, trade and crafts with fasteners in time,” Lederer stated. “Under these exceptional circumstances, the European Union would create the ‘perfect storm’ if it were to impose additional duties on the import of iron and steel fasteners from the People’s Republic of China.”

Lederer said the global market for fasteners is “upside down,” according to Fastener + Fixing. 

“Delivery times for fasteners have doubled and even tripled since the beginning of the year, reaching up to twelve months. There are no alternatives to China in Asia or Europe. In other East Asian markets like Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam, capacities are exhausted as U.S. companies claimed resources here a few years ago in response to the Trump administration’s protective tariffs on Chinese imports.”

Pandemic travel restrictions make it impossible for European importers to conduct the visits and audits required for new suppliers, while raw material shortages, such as steel or wire rod, are exacerbating  supply problems, Lederer explained. And continuing global logistics problems in maritime shipping with container shortages and the effects of the crisis at the Suez Canal mean that what little raw materials that are available can only reach Europe with significant delays and extra costs. 

Purchasing in Europe is also ruled out as an alternative, Fastener + Fixing noted. 

“European manufacturers are not having any free capacities and would never be able, nor willing, to produce the quantities of standard fasteners necessary to satisfy the demand of European industry,” Lederer pointed out. 

European fastener distributors supply a range of standard and special parts to EU automotive, machine building, construction, wind energy and agriculture OEMs. 

“For these manufacturers the permanent availability of standard parts is indispensable so that their products can continue to be manufactured in Europe and successfully sold on world markets,” Lederer stated. “Therefore Europe must now do everything possible to ensure the global competitiveness of its industry and not to unnecessarily complicate its supply with indispensable primary products like fasteners. 

“To recover from the Covid-19 crisis and in order to avoid breakdowns of productions lines in Europe, the European economy needs the capacity of the entire Asian procurement market – including China. With anti-dumping duties, the EU would ‘put a spoke in the wheel’ of EU recovery,” Lederer concluded.