#44 - Steel Tariffs Hit 50%, and the Alarming Data on AI in Procurement

Welcome back to Compri Bene: a special August edition, built for anyone returning from holiday who wants to know in ten minutes what's changed.

Three stories and two dates for the return: a new rule already in force, two market surveys showing where AI has actually landed, and the deadlines to mark before reopening your orders.

Steel: quotas cut, tariffs at 50%, and new proof to request from suppliers by October 1st

From July 1, 2026, steel enters Europe under different rules. Regulation (EU) 2026/1384 replaced the safeguard measure in force since 2019 that expired on June 30, and this time it's a permanent instrument, with no expiration date.

The new regulatory framework in brief:

• 18,345,922 tonnes of duty-free quotas per year, i.e. the volumes that enter without paying, spread across the 30 product categories in Annex I, from hot-rolled products to seamless tubes, from bars to wire rod

• 50% ad valorem tariffs, calculated on the value of the goods, for anything exceeding the quota: double the previous 25%

• roughly 47% less duty-free volume compared to the 2024 quotas, according to the Council of the EU

• quarterly allocation on a first-come, first-served basis, with unused volumes rolling over to the next quarter for the entire first year, through June 30, 2027

The change that deserves a spot on your calendar is a different one. From October 1, 2026, importers must prove at customs the country of melt and pour, meaning the place where the steel was first melted in a furnace and cast into solid form. What counts is that step, upstream of rolling, coating, and shipping, which often happen elsewhere. The regulation cites the manufacturer's mill test certificate as an example of proof, and the European Commission must determine by August 31, 2026 which documents will actually be accepted. The requirement also applies to steel from EEA countries, meaning Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, which remain outside the quotas and tariffs but not outside this requirement.

The numbers behind the crackdown are in the regulation itself: global steel overcapacity stood at 602 million tonnes in 2024, roughly five times European consumption, and will reach 721 million by 2027. Over the same period, European industry has lost more than 30 million tonnes of capacity since 2018, with plants running at 67% utilization in 2024 and roughly 30,000 fewer jobs.

Two more deadlines widen the scope. From October 1, 2027, melt-country data will feed into how quotas are allocated among exporting countries, and by June 30, 2028 the Commission will assess whether to make it the basis for access. Most importantly, by June 30, 2027 it must assess whether to extend the rules to downstream products that contain significant amounts of steel: anyone importing finished components rather than raw material could fall within scope. Worth keeping in mind too: iron and steel are also among the sectors covered by CBAM, so two separate cost items stack on the same purchase.

🔗 Primary sources: Regulation (EU) 2026/1384, EU Official Journal · Council of the EU, regulation adoption · European Commission, melt and pour proof consultation

37% of companies are piloting AI in procurement, but only 2% have actually integrated it

Achilles is a British company that runs supplier qualification and monitoring networks, and every year it surveys the organizations that belong to those networks. Its annual survey, published in March 2026, gathers responses from 2,805 organizations across ten markets, including Italy, in construction, energy, manufacturing, transportation, financial services, and public administration. The AI findings were covered by Procurement Magazine on August 11.

Among respondents who answered questions on AI adoption, 37% already have AI in pilot, production, or extended use across procurement, supplier risk, and sustainability. But only 2% say they've fully integrated it company-wide. Sentiment remains favorable, with 45% positive opinions versus 7% negative, so that missing leap has little to do with distrust of the technology.

The differences are stark depending on the respondent's sector. Among sectors with at least 25 respondents, IT services lead AI implementation at 62%, maritime transport follows at 56%, and road transport comes last at 26%, against an overall average of 37%. The most common use cases remain concrete: process automation, virtual assistants, and supplier risk management. The same goes for the reported benefits: more process efficiency, less repetitive work, and better-informed decisions.

The genuinely useful part of the report is the barriers, because they're organizational before they're technological:

• insufficient in-house skills and data analysis capacity

• integration difficulties with ERPs and legacy systems, meaning the management software already in use at the company

• messy, poorly structured data

• AI not yet treated as a strategic priority

In the background, the same survey notes that only 6% of organizations have full visibility beyond their tier-1 suppliers.

Adam Whitfield, Global Compliance and ESG Lead at Achilles, put it this way in a statement picked up by Procurement Magazine:

📌 We covered this before: in edition #41, the Thomson Reuters Global Trade Report 2026 showed an almost identical figure from a different angle. Specifically, fewer than 8% of companies reported full control over supplier risk.

🔗 Sources: Procurement Magazine · Achilles

Official Eurostat data: AI reaches marketing before it reaches the supply chain

If the Achilles survey tells you what companies say, Eurostat data (the EU's statistical office) shows where AI actually ends up. This data comes from the EU-wide survey on ICT use (information and communication technologies) conducted by national statistical institutes on a sample of 157,000 companies based in Europe.

In the EU, 19.95% of companies with at least 10 employees use at least one AI application, up 6.5 points from 13.5% in 2024. In manufacturing the share is 17.3%, in Italy 16.4%. Company size matters a lot: from 17% of small companies, the share rises to 30.4% of medium companies and 55.0% of large ones.

The figure that matters to procurement people is in the breakdown by use case. Among European companies using AI, 34.7% use it for marketing and sales and 31.0% for organizing administrative and management processes. Logistics comes last, at 6.1%. In manufacturing the picture doesn't change: 30.4% on marketing and sales, 6.6% on logistics.

🔗 Primary sources: Eurostat, «Use of artificial intelligence in enterprises» · Eurostat (dataset 1, dataset 2)

Our AI agents work on the data you already have, meaning contracts, orders, and deadlines, and return supplier comparisons and spend-anomaly alerts. It's the shortest path from pilot to daily use without adding headcount.

December 30, 2026, EUDR. The EUDR, the EU Deforestation Regulation, the European regulation on zero-deforestation products, applies to large and medium-sized operators, with an extension to June 30, 2027 for micro and small enterprises, following the revision adopted by the Council of the EU in December 2025. It covers cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, wood, and derivatives. About 4 months remain to get the geolocation of production areas and due-diligence statements in order, meaning the documented checks on the origin of each batch.

September 30, 2027, CBAM. The CBAM, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism, has been in its definitive regime since January 1, 2026. Imports of cement, fertilizers, iron and steel, aluminum, electricity, and hydrogen made this year are therefore already generating exposure to certificates. Certificate sales open in 2027, and the first annual declaration, surrendering certificates tied to 2026 imports, is due by September 30, 2027. Below 50 tonnes of total annual CBAM goods, companies remain exempt, with the exception of electricity and hydrogen.

🔗 Primary sources: Consiglio dell’UE, revisione EUDR · Parlamento europeo · Commissione europea, attuazione EUDR · Commissione europea, regime definitivo CBAM · DEHSt, l’autorità tedesca per lo scambio di quote di emissione

Compri Bene is Compri's newsletter, and it's free. Compri builds automation software for Procurement, so we're writing about a sector we operate in: whenever we mention our own products, we say so explicitly.

We check facts and sources carefully and always cite original documents, but we can get things wrong. If you spot an error, write to us at compribene@compri.ai and we'll work to correct it in the next issue.

Information is current as of the send date, and some of the regulations cited are still evolving. What you read here is purely editorial, meant to suggest ideas and topics worth exploring, and does not constitute legal or professional advice, nor does it replace a professional's service for your specific case: before deciding on regulatory, tax, or contractual matters, get assistance from someone who can assess your situation.

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