Will Greece Watch from the Sidelines as Europe’s Aluminium Industry Melts Down?

While the world arms its industries, Europe disarms its own. This is the harsh reality facing the EU’s aluminium sector — and by extension, Greece’s own industrial backbone — as competitors like the U.S., China, Canada, and Gulf states escalate their support through subsidies, cheap energy, and trade barriers.

The EU, however, has chosen a different path: carbon taxes, market constraints, and bureaucratic rigidity.

 Aluminium in Crisis: Greece’s Strategic Blind Spot

Despite aluminium being a strategic, energy-intensive metal essential for green transitions and defense applications, Greece remains passive. While other EU countries are increasingly rebelling against Brussels’ restrictive policies, Athens continues to walk the line, even as domestic producers raise the alarm.

The European Commission’s insistence on expensive CO₂ emission rights pushes operational costs to unsustainable levels. No other region in the world burdens its industries this way — not even close.

Meanwhile:

• The U.S. raised tariffs on aluminium to 50% under Trump’s second term, explicitly to protect local jobs and industry.
• Canada offers state-subsidized energy rates to its manufacturers.
• China and Middle Eastern countries flood the global market with aluminium supported by massive fuel and energy subsidies.

The result? Unfair competition, falling EU market share, and slow industrial erosion.

A European Policy That Punishes Its Own

The EU’s policies seem almost self-sabotaging. While the rest of the world prioritizes strategic autonomy and industrial resilience, Brussels doubles down on austerity and environmental purism — without offering realistic transition support.

Even worse, EU rules forbid member states from subsidizing their industries, regardless of how dire the situation becomes. That’s despite mounting pressure from unions, industry groups, and economists who see the writing on the wall: deindustrialization.

According to European Aluminium, the sector faces a “state of uncertainty” due to vague EU-U.S. agreements and growing export losses. The EU steel association Eurofer notes a drop of 800,000 tonnes in steel exports to the U.S. since 2018, when Trump first implemented punitive tariffs.

With Trump now back and pushing harder, the message is clear: global industrial policy is a battlefield — and Europe is unarmed.

Greece: A Policy Vacuum with High Stakes

In Greece, the government’s lack of industrial policy is glaring. With high electricity prices, zero strategic incentives, and heavy compliance burdens, domestic aluminium producers face crippling disadvantages.

Despite the metal’s strategic importance — for infrastructure, renewables, defense, and transportation — Greek policymakers remain silent.

Other EU nations are beginning to bend the rules to protect their economies. Why not Greece? Is it fear of Brussels? Lack of vision? Or simple inertia?

 The Bigger Picture: Europe’s Shrinking Industrial Footprint

The aluminium crisis isn’t isolated. It’s a symptom of a broader European failure to balance climate goals with economic security. Unless the EU — and Greece — rethink their approach, global production will shift elsewhere, permanently.

The future of Europe’s — and Greece’s — industrial sovereignty is at stake. The question is no longer if we’ll fall behind, but how fast.

Will Greece wake up in time — or watch its industrial foundations erode in silence?

Source: pagenews.gr