The global race for industrial sovereignty is well underway.
U.S. tariffs, global overcapacity, and market distortions caused by countries that specifically subsidise their domestic industry or circumvent existing rules are putting growing pressure on Europe. Between free trade and protectionism, climate goals and supply security, a new course must be charted. One thing is clear: Europe must act — not just for economic reasons, but for strategic ones as well.
It is becoming evident that key raw materials and essential industries must be reassessed from a strategic perspective – especially in terms of their value chains and dependence on global markets. A prime example of this is stainless steel: This material is essential for green technologies, critical infrastructure, and the modernization of industries. Outokumpu, the global leader in sustainable stainless steel, demonstrates what sustainable, resilient, and competitive production can look like.
The steel industry is seen as the backbone of many industrial sectors – and is increasingly moving into the spotlight of geopolitical debates. Global reindustrialization, new regulatory frameworks in Europe, and China’s dominant position in the global steel raise the question: who produces strategical industrial materials — and under what conditions? Policy instruments like the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and trade defence measures make it clear: Steel has long since become a strategic asset. With the Action Plan for the Steel and Metals Industry, the European Commission presented a strategy in spring 2025 aimed at safeguarding the sector’s competitiveness in Europe. But is that enough to make Europe’s industry resilient? Or will further political action be required?
Import dependence as a strategic risk
Global demand for steel is expected to rise in the coming years — driven by infrastructure programs in North America, rapid urbanization in Asia and Africa, and the expansion of low-carbon energy systems in Europe. Stainless steel in particular plays a central role: corrosion-resistant, durable, and highly versatile, it is not only essential for industrial value chains but also vital in strategic areas such as aerospace and defence.
Currently, stainless steel accounts for only around 8% of total global steel production. However, the infrastructure of the future – meaning everything from renewable energy production and the hydrogen economy to mobility solutions – will need more stainless steel than ever before. And with this change comes a significant risk: currently, around 28% of the stainless steel used in Europe is still imported — often with a high carbon footprint.
This dependence negatively impacts the climate due to the poor emissions balance of imported steel, and increases vulnerability for Europe and the Western economic zone.
Critical raw materials such as nickel, chromium, and molybdenum are often sourced from geopolitically sensitive regions, including Russia, Turkey, and China. As a result, risks such as supply disruptions, price volatility, and trade restrictions are inevitable.
High-quality scrap is available, but without effective regulation it cannot serve as a reliable raw material. Only if these flows are secured and put to use can a truly resilient circular economy take shape.
Given the strategic importance of critical raw materials, industrial sovereignty and shifting global power dynamics, sustainably produced stainless steel from the transatlantic region is increasingly becoming a geopolitical issue — not just an environmental one.
Outokumpu as a blueprint for sustainability and resilience
Outokumpu demonstrates what strategic resilience can look like in practice: with our chromium mine in Kemi, Finland, we hold the EU’s only domestic source of this critical raw material. The low-emission ferrochrome from our nearby Tornio plant is the sole secured supply of its kind for both Europe and North America. Together, the mine and the plant form a nearly self-sufficient supply chain that provides security of supply on both sides of the Atlantic.
Image: Outokumpu's Kemi mine, which will become carbon neutral in 2025
Stainless steel also offers a key material advantage: it can be recycled almost endlessly without any loss in quality – unlike plastics, paper, or even aluminium. Today, we already use more than 90% recycled material content in our production, which enables us to have a carbon footprint 75% below the industry average and significantly reduces our reliance on primary raw materials. We also consistently relies on clean energy which, as Finland’s largest industrial electricity consumer, proves that low-emission production is feasible even in energy-intensive industries.
What we have built in Northern Europe goes beyond a business model. It is a blueprint for a European industry that combines security of supply, ambitious climate policy, and competitiveness. With production sites in Finland, Sweden, and Germany, and a logistics hub in the Netherlands, we have a reliable, integrated industrial ecosystem – regionally rooted, globally competitive.
What European industrial policy must deliver now
Sustainable stainless steel is not a niche product – it is a strategic key to Europe’s decarbonisation, modernisation, and resilience. While our work actively demonstrates how industrial value creation can be made both resilient and decarbonised, this isn’t the case across industries today. If we want this to be the norm for an industrialized Europe, we need more than isolated initiatives: we need a coherent industrial policy agenda.
The EU has introduced important levers with the Net-Zero Industry Act, the Critical Raw Materials Act, and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. However, to drive the transformation forward decisively, these instruments now need to be further developed in a targeted way. The Steel and Metals Action Plan clearly identifies the key challenges – what the industry now needs are concrete solutions for their implementation.
A fair carbon price must also apply to steel intensive product segments – otherwise, we risk carbon leakage and the relocation of industry. At the same time, Europe must actively stimulate demand for sustainable products.
If Europe wants to secure its industrial future, it must start with the material: stainless steel belongs at the heart of European industrial policy.