Colombia faces dilemma between protecting local steel industry and having industrial policy
The recent proposal raised by the Steel Producers Committee of the National Association of Entrepreneurs in Colombia (ANDI) to increase steel import tariffs, which seeks to raise current tariffs from 5% to 20% or 25%, has generated an intense debate between national producers and importers.
Currently, the Colombian steel industry has 6 steel mills and 12 hot rolling mills for the production of long steel, with an installed annual capacity of 2.6 million tons. But in 2023 it only produced 1.47 million tons of long steel products, a drop of 45,000 tons compared to 2022, which was the opposite of the global market when 2 million tons were produced more than in 2022.
The stagnation of the Colombian steel sector was aggravated by the increase in imports. The Colombian Chamber of Steel (CAMACERO) recommended that in order to change the state of things and increase the country's productive capacity, an industrial policy in Colombia is needed, to guide public and private investment towards the sector.
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