LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Europe's aluminium industry expects the European Union to impose export tariffs on aluminium scrap this year to protect the recycling industry from outflows from Europe, Emilio Braghi, president of Novelis Europe, said on Tuesday.
The outflow of aluminium scrap from the EU intensified after the U.S. imposed a 25% import tariff on aluminium earlier this year but excluded aluminium scrap from the tariff, prompting an increase of exports of scrap to the U.S. for recycling.
Aluminium scrap prices in Europe rose due to outflows to the U.S, affecting margins of the recycling industry.
Novelis, the world's largest recycler of aluminium and a major producer of flat-rolled aluminium products, along with the European Aluminium Association have been in dialogue with the European Commission on measures to tackle the outflow of scrap and have received positive signals, Braghi said.
"They really understand the problem, and they want to develop a solution from that," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the CRU's World Aluminium Summit in London.
"I hope we will see some initiatives coming from the European Commission to limit this scrap leakage well before the end of this year," he added.
People familiar with the matter told Reuters in March that the EU Commission was weighing export duties of up to 25% on scrap metal.
After the U.S.-China deal this week to pause sky-high tariffs, Novelis hopes that an agreement on trade tariffs between the EU and the U.S. would follow.
"This is really needed obviously. It would be for the best to try to achieve a good agreement on both parts of the world," Braghi said.
The 25% U.S. tariff on aluminium prompted a fall in the European aluminium premium EPDc1 and a spike in the Midwest premium in the U.S. physical market AUPc1, leading to a huge gap between the Midwest and the European premiums, which Braghi said was unsustainable in the long term.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Susan Fenton)
((polina.devitt@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: polina.devitt.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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