In 2025, steel exports from India to the EU totalled 2.4 million tonnes
India, which became a net exporter of rolled steel in the 2025/2026 financial year, risks losing this position in the current financial year. This is due to the EU’s renewed safeguard duties and reductions in import quotas. This is reported by SteelOrbis, citing a report by the analytical agency Crisil Intelligence.
According to experts, in the 2026/2027 financial year, total Indian steel exports could fall by 25–30 per cent compared with the previous year. The main factors behind the decline are the reduction in European quotas, fierce competition on global markets and low global metal prices. Due to the fall in export profitability, Indian steelmakers will be forced to redirect the bulk of their production to the domestic market.
New EU safeguard measures came into force on 1 July. They provide for a significant reduction in import volumes, which initially cut India’s share by 41 per cent. However, the introduction of individual quotas for certain product types (in particular, heavy plate) has somewhat mitigated the effect, limiting the overall decline to 30 per cent.
New quota categories introduced under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the EU (in particular the FTA-CSQ and FTA-others categories) may provide some relief for Indian exporters. These will provide alternative channels for supplying steel to the European market and will partially offset the severity of the new restrictions, although the true extent of their effectiveness remains to be assessed.
The European Union remains a critically important market for the Indian steel industry. Although India exports only 3–5 per cent of its total rolled steel production, in 2025 almost 40 per cent of these exports were destined for the EU. In total, the EU imported 29.7 million tonnes of steel last year, of which 2.4 million tonnes (around 8%) came from Indian producers.
India has secured an increase in its duty-free steel export quota to the UK under a free trade agreement. Almost 80 per cent of steel exports from India to the UK will not be subject to British safeguard measures.
