Taiwan's Fastener Industry Expected for a Stable Growth in the Wake of EU's Temporary Safeguard Measure

Following the China-US trade war and Section 232 Tariffs, the EU joined the safeguard tariff battle on July 19 and imposed a 200-day temporary safeguard measure on 23 types of specific imported steel products. However, the tariff mostly involves upstream steel billets and downstream steel plates, which is less likely to directly affect Taiwan's fastener manufacturing in the short term. Since fasteners are at the bottom of the steel supply chain, they are not subject to the safeguard tariff and will not end up with substantial loss of orders. Taiwanese fastener companies are optimistic about the market and fastener price is expected to rise mildy with the materials. Overall, Taiwan's fastener revenues were growing stably in the first half of this year and the next half is expected to remain the same.