Finland deplores continued uncertainty in steel tariffs

HELSINKI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade Anne-Mari Virolainen on Tuesday deplored that "uncertainty continues" following the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to temporarily extend the exemption of planned tariffs on imports of EU steel and aluminum for a month.

"The positive side of the decision is that the tariffs did not take effect," Virolainen told Finnish News Agency, STT. "The decision did not do away with the underlying problem, the overproduction," she said.

Virolainen noted that the continued uncertainty is "bad for all enterprises".

Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat noted on Tuesday that Finland-based steel industry has actually benefited from the threat of the imminent tariffs. Both the Outokumpu Steel and the SSAB (Svensk stal) have production also in the United States. U.S. industries using steel and aluminum have started piling up their reserves and the prices have increased.

Reeta Kaukiainen, director for investor relations at Outokumpu, told HS that the long term negative impact of the would-be tariffs is that steel companies to be affected would start "selling to Europe and competing here". Steel imports from the targeted countries have already increased since the United States published its intentions.

Olavi Huhtala, the director for European operations at SSAB, said the real long term impact of the U.S. tariffs cannot be assessed in advance. Huhtala said to the HS that SSAB exports to the U.S. mainly special steels that are not produced in the U.S. They include automotive steel and other heavy duty steels, "not standard products", Huhtala said. If the tariffs would concern these products, the customers could apply for reimbursements, he noted. Enditem