Raw materials are an essential part of both high tech products and every-day consumer products, and European industry needs fair access to raw materials both from within and outside the EU. For certain high-tech metals, the EU has a high import dependency and access to these raw materials is getting increasingly difficult. In response to this challenge, the European Commission launched on November, 4th,  a new integrated strategy which sets out targeted measures to secure and improve the access to raw materials for EU industry.

Many resource-rich countries are applying protectionist measures that stop or slow down the export of raw materials to Europe in order to help their downstream industries, and many European producers suffer from such practices. Besides, some emerging countries are becoming very active in resource-rich countries, particularly in Africa, with the aim of securing a privileged access to raw materials. In this situation, Europe should act now, in order to avoid the European industry to be put at a competitive disadvantage.

Vice-President Verheugen, Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, stressed that the EU “must act, to ensure that access to raw materials for enterprises will not be hampered. We need fair play on external markets, a good framework to foster sustainable raw materials supply from EU sources as well as improved resource efficiency and more use of recycling. It is our aim to make sure that Europe’s industry will be able to continue to play a leading role in new technologies and innovation. I have agreed with my colleagues, notably Cathy Ashton, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Louis Michel and Stavros Dimas, to closely cooperate to implement the proposed strategy.”

Despite recent price falls, raw material prices are still very high from a historical perspective. This provides a window of opportunity for new raw material projects within the EU. However, the current EU framework conditions are making it difficult to seize these new possibilities.

Recycling presents a huge opportunity to reduce import dependency for raw materials. However, many end-of-life products are illegally shipped outside the EU and are hence not recycled within in the EU. The European Parliament already addressed such issue early this year when, within the promotion of a “sustainable industry”, it asked the Commission to propose measures to guarantee sustainable access to raw materials.

The Commission, therefore recommends that the EU will define critical raw materials, and gives itself an integrated raw material strategy, based on 3 major pillars:

• Access to raw materials on world markets at undistorted conditions
• The right framework to foster sustainable supply of raw materials from EU sources
• Increase resource efficiency and promoting recycling in the EU

Non-energy raw materials

Critical raw materials, in particular the high tech metals, are increasingly used for the development of technologically sophisticated products.

There are over 450 export restrictions on more than 400 different raw materials, including secondary raw materials. This situation leads to trade distortions within the market which could jeopardized EU industry.

Furthermore, for many essential raw materials extraction is concentrated in a limited number of countries, and important raw materials sources are increasingly located in parts of the world which lack political and economic stability.

EU industries rely heavily on secondary raw materials. As examples, recycled aggregates may substitute 10-20% of primary aggregates, while the use of recycled scrap has increased significantly in recent decades and now represents 40% to 60% of input to EU metal production.

The advantage of recycling is that it contributes to energy efficiency, particularly in the case of metals where production on the basis of secondary raw materials (scrap) is up to significantly more energy efficient compared to primary raw material. As an example, secondary smelting of aluminium using scrap consumes only 5% of the electricity used compared to primary smelting.