Major European steel mills are conducting a “self-centered and misleading campaign aimed at virtually sealing off completely the steel market in Europe”, the European non-integrated wire rod processing association (EUNIRPA) said.

Ahead of a vote on 12 June by EU member state representatives in a safeguard committee, EUNIRPA opposes the “extravagantly protectionist measures” proposed by Eurofer in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Eurofer’s proposals have no other purpose than “bluntly” shielding the European market from imports by adjusting safeguard quotas in ways that are “incompatible with basic EU and WTO principles”, EUNIRPA said.

The chief executives of Europe’s leading mills earlier this week sent a letter to the commission calling the commission’s safeguard proposal “unhelpful” as it did not take into account a 50pc demand slump since the pandemic hit in mid-March.

The commission appears unwilling to accept a temporary “drastic” quota reduction to deal with sudden demand collapse owing to the coronavirus. Also unacceptable to the commission would be further slowing down liberalisation of imports by reducing the pace of the progressive increase in import quotas to 1pc from 3pc.

The commission may make further changes to its current proposal to be voted on by member states on 12 June, although no major amendments are expected.