Eurometal warns 300,000 EU factory jobs at risk as Chinese competition accelerates deindustrialization

Europe’s manufacturing sector is staring down what one industry leader calls an “accelerating process of deindustrialisation,” and the numbers backing up that claim are genuinely alarming. Eurometal, the trade body representing European steel distributors and processors, estimates that roughly 300,000 direct jobs in the steel industry alone are under immediate threat from subsidized Chinese imports flooding the continent. A protest featuring 10 coffins, each symbolizing a struggling manufacturing sector, is set to take place in Brussels. The scale of the problem The 300,000 figure is just the tip of the iceberg. Eurometal puts total at-risk employment at over 13 million direct jobs and roughly 65 million indirect jobs across European manufacturing. The steel sector itself supports an estimated 2.5 million positions when you factor in the broader supply chain. Eurometal President Alexander Julius has described the situation as a “colonisation” of European industry by Chinese component manufacturers. Safeguard measures first implemented in 2018 were supposed to stem the flow of cheap imports. They didn’t. Factory closures and production cuts have continued to pile up, spreading beyon...