Press & Media

Everything needed to cite, embed or screenshot the Free EU Steel Quota Tracker on a deadline.

What this is, in three sentences

The Free EU Steel Quota Tracker shows daily balances of the EU's steel import quotas — the tariff-free allowances that decide when the 50% out-of-quota tariff applies under Regulation (EU) 2026/1384, the permanent measure that replaced the steel safeguard on 1 July 2026. It tracks all 26 product categories and every quota line — country quotas, FTA pools and residual pools — including the United Kingdom's own quotas for exporting into the EU. It also maps workshop steel grades (EN3B, EN24, S355, 304 stainless, DX51D…) to their EU quota categories.

Reuse — you're welcome to

• Broadcast-friendly view: the big-screen board — full-screen quota status for all 26 categories, no navigation chrome, auto-updating. Made for studio screens and B-roll.
• Share image: og-eu-quota-tracker.png (1200×630).
• Deep links: every category is directly linkable, e.g. …tracker.html#cat-13 for rebar or #cat-1A for hot-rolled coil.
• UK angle in one click: the tracker's "UK-relevant" filter isolates the 45 quota lines that matter to UK exporters shipping steel into the EU.
• Companion tool: the UK Steel Quota Tracker covers the mirror-image regime for imports into the UK.

Methodology, honestly stated

• Quota balances come from the European Commission's official TARIC/QUOTA data distribution — the same feed that runs national customs systems — as republished daily by Swedish Customs (Tullverket), and are cross-checked weekly against DG TAXUD's consolidated quota usage reports.
• The EU publishes balances once per working-day evening; figures exclude allocation requests still being processed, so they run roughly two working days behind customs reality. The tracker states its "balances as of" timestamp openly and flags stale or fallback data automatically.
• Each category's tonnage is allocated in tiers — country quotas, shared FTA pools, an FTA-partners pool and an open-to-all residual — and the tracker labels every line with its tier and official order number (09.xxxx), which can be verified on the EU's quota consultation database.
• Grade-to-category mapping is editorial guidance by form and process: the exact CN/TARIC code decides classification, and the tracker says so wherever a grade result is shown.
• Projections ("may exhaust ~date") are straight-line estimates from usage so far in the quarter — a supply-risk signal, not a forecast of prices or a guarantee.

Quick facts (checkable against the tracker live)

• Regulation (EU) 2026/1384 (in force since 1 July 2026) cut tariff-free steel import volumes by roughly 47% versus the old safeguard, to about 18.3 million tonnes a year, and doubled the out-of-quota tariff from 25% to 50%.
• It covers 26 product categories across 283 quota lines, allocated quarterly, first come, first served; unused volume carries over only within the first year of the measure (to 30 June 2027).
• The United Kingdom is treated as an FTA partner with country-specific quotas in most categories plus ring-fenced shares of the residual pools — several of those lines are already under heavy pressure in the very first quarter.
• Country allocations under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1457 run to 31 December 2026 and will be reissued for the first half of 2027.

Comment & interviews

Jan-Marc Pickhan, Director, TrueNorth Engineering Ltd (Manchester) — sales@tneltd.com · +44 7757 174 197. Same-day response for press deadlines. Fluent commentary on both the EU and UK steel quota regimes and what they mean for engineering supply chains.