This time is not, definitely, the best time for an industry that has been the engine of the economic growth all over Europe: the steel business. As known, steel, together with coal mining, were the root of the current EU Institutions, with the ECSC Treaty, agreed by the founding countries 65 years ago.
We, the Europeans know pretty well how to produce Steel. We produce high quality, high efficient steel, with strong innovative approach, aiming to fulfil, and even anticipate, our customers’ requests. We manufacture steel under the highest environmental standards, with a worldwide record on workers safety, and we are very proud of it, and must say, I am confident I could speak on behalf of all our colleagues, from every steel mill that produces every tonne of steel we deliver to the market.
Nevertheless, steel industry has been out of the political agenda, as “non fashionable” industry. This fact, together with a flood of unfair imports, has recently brought our industry to headlines, showing our industry as “archaic”, no ready to cope with globalization challenges, etc. Unfair competition coming from companies that lack our environmental and workers’ care, and/or enjoy enormous state intervention have seriously harmed our competitiveness. We could hardly compete without a level playing field.
Unfortunately, not only steel has been out of the political agenda, but also other “real” industrial sectors that bring long-term jobs and have been contributing to the European prosperity and value chain from decades. Hard figures undoubtedly show that industry is the economic activity that better alleviate (steelers could say “roll” in our jargon) the crisis. Once we weather the storm, we will be ready to return to contribute the society as we did.
We would like to launch a very modest social media campaign, under the hashtag #SteelinEU, taking advantage of the double meaning, written and sound. We are a real industry, still in the EU, and we want to continue producing here, steel in EU. We would like to spread our message of how we are fighting to survive and succeed in a political framework, that seems not to be really interested in allowing us to remain, as we are forced to shut down factories, make our workers redundant, reducing our industrial output, under regulatory threads and unfair competition out of our control that impede to develop all our technological potential.
Therefore, we encourage all “friends of EU steel” to join our campaign, steel companies, unions, R&D centres, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, and to proudly say that every tonne of steel consumed but no produced in the EU, will come from other countries, and mostly, with lower environmental, social, and even economic standards. We would like to gather messages, ideas, or just information in order to transmit to influencers, authorities and civil society, that there is future for steel manufactured in the EU. All contributions under the hashtag #SteelinEU.
Our aim is not only to show our technological and environmental strength, but the human side, that is plenty of good examples. In order to make public our “steel family” stories, we aim to publish real facts of actual and former steel people. Steel is made by men and women that put their contribution to increase the wealth and prosperity of the Spanish and European society.
