Statement on the Call for Evidence on the Circular Economy Act
06 November 2025 | The German steel industry welcomes the initiative of the European Commission to prepare a comprehensive Circular Economy Act (CEA) to accelerate the Union’s transition towards a more circular economy. The forthcoming CEA provides the opportunity to becoming a strategic industrial policy tool that strengthens competitiveness, resilience, and climate neutrality. Steel is a material that can be recycled endlessly without loss of quality and is already one of the most recycled materials in the world, with end-of-life collection rates of around 90% and recycling rates of about 85% and more. As primary steel production increasingly shifts to direct-reduced iron with electric arc furnaces (DRI-EAF), complementing scrap use, new opportunities will emerge to drive even higher demand for scrap in the EU. In addition, steel – with its inherent properties – meets the requirements associated with circularity and the various R-concepts for sustainable and circular products. The Circular Economy Act should therefore provide a coherent and harmonised framework that
- promotes the availability and quality of scrap,
- ensures a level playing field and strong demand by the Single Market,
- removes regulatory barriers to the use of steel and its industrial by-products without seeking to impose a one-size-fits-all, and
- creates lead markets for circular materials and by-products through Policy instruments such as Green Public Procurement.
At the same time, it is essential to avoid prescriptive measures such as unspecific scrap quotas that could trigger diversion effects or politically motivated sectoral competition for raw materials. Adequate funding and political support will also be vital to enable both investment in modern scrap-processing facilities and the large-scale transformation of the sector towards climate neutrality.
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