Alexander Kolodzik, secretary general

The European fastener distribution industry is facing unprecedented challenges due to profound technological, geopolitical and regulatory changes. While in recent years our companies have primarily groaned under the burden of additional bureaucracy weighing on supply chains, it has become clear over the course of 2025 that the cost factor is playing increasingly important role.

The EU legislator has decided to significantly increase the cost of fasteners by imposing anti-dumping duties on Chinese threaded rods and, in particular, through the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) regulation. For this reason alone, 2026 will be a year of great challenges and strategic decisions for our industry.

Since 24th October 2025, an anti-dumping duty has ben in force on imports of screws without head originating in the Peple's Republic of China. The duty mainly, but not exclusively, applies to threaded rods, thereby closing a loophole in the area of iron and steel fasteners from China, as screws withou thead were not already covered by the anti-dumping duties already in force. The anti-dumping investigation was requested by the European Industrial Fastener Institute (EIFI), the association of fastener manufacturers in Europe.

The European Fastener Distributor Association (EFDA) also participated in this investigation with the combined strength of its experts and highly Professional legal support and was able to reduce the definitive anti-dumping duty from the provisional duty rate of 80.7% to 72.3%. A duty rate of 59.8 % applies to products from certain Chinese manufacturers, which is also lower than the originally assumed 67.4%. The reason for the reduction in the duty rates was incorrect calculations by the Europeon Commission, which EFDA had discovered. This saves our member companies money, but the burdens are still high enough.

Contrary to expectations, the anti-dumping duties have also been levied retroactively and therefore also apply to imports made three months prior to the imposition of the provisional duties. This is a new development. For years and decades, the Commission had not made use of the option of retroactive duties becuse it rightly considered it to be too far reaching - a measure that would place a disproportionate burden on EU importers. It has apparently abandoned this practice for purely political reasons.

It can be assumed that the aim is to show the People's Republic of China in particular that the EU can also take tougher measures within its legal framework. Unfortunately, these retroactive duties do not benefit anyone, not even European manufacturers who vehemently advocated for them during the investigation, nor do they have an impact on Chinese manufacturers who have already sold their products. They just drive up the costs for fasteners in Europe.

Now, with CBAM, our industry is facing a new, enormous cost driver. From the thousands of pages that the EU legislator made available 'in odvance' on the CBAM website shortly before Christmas, it is clear that in 2026 the CBAM related costs for importing fasteners will already be significantly higher than expected.

While it has long been clear that CBAM costs wll rise from 2026 to 2034, it was originally assumed that the costs for the starting year 2026 would still be manageable. However, initial estimates suggest this will not be the case. Instead, the costs will have a huge impact on pricing and thus contribute significantly to the increase in the cost of products 'Made in EU' that contain fasteners.

However, at the time of writing this article, we are unable to provide any specific calculation examples that are 100% reliable. This is not least due to the complexity of the rules established for calculating the costs and, in addition, there are stil points that raise questions.

In fact, it is not only scandalous that the regulations concerning the CBAM cost calculation were published only a few days before 1st January 2026 - the date from which CBAM costs will apply to every screw arriving in the EU. I also contradicts the EU's announced policy of reducing bureaucracy. Having just rushed through well intentioned 'simplification packages', the level of detail is now worse than could ever have been feared. The quality and timing of the legislation are unacceptable.

In some cases, the problems are exacerbated by the fact that fasteners are downstream products for which there is no equivalent in the EuropeanTrading System, the CBAM equivalent for European manufacturers of products whose CO2 emissions are to be reduced through the purchase of certificates.

It is fortunate that the EFDA CBAM Working Group exists to support EFDA members in implementing the CBAM regulations. From the outset, the members of the group have exchanged ideas to develop a common understanding of completely unclear EU regulations or directives. In 2025, the group also developed guidelines or templates, which EFDA makes available to its member companies. These products are clearly designed to meet the needs of our companies in the fastener industry.

With the expertise of our members, EFDA provides information about what is important for our companies, we also give the all clear where possible. In any case, no one has any interest in making things more complicated than they already are. In EFDA, fastener distributors work for fastener distributors.

Our work in 2025 was certainly more strenuous than expected, particularlg because the regulations and implementation aids required for 2026 were not available as announced. In 2026, our industry wil face several challenges regarding CBAM. Even at the beginning of the full implementation phase in early January, much remains uncertain. As always with CBAM, the EU Commission is too late.

Our companies are therefore wondering whether they will be able to use the manufacturers' actual emission data at all or whether they wil have to rely on the high default values. This depends on the actual values being verified in the manufacturing countries. However, the system is not yet up and running, and it is unclear how and when reliable verification can take place. And once again, it is becoming apparent that it will be expensive.

CBAM alone wil keep our industry and the association incredibly busy and challenged in 2026 - and that in a world full of change and unforeseable consequences. Given the enormous challenges facing our industry. it is good to know that our companies and their associotions are further ahead in dealing with CBAM than many other companies and industries affected by CBAM in Europe. Nevertheless, the challenges that now need to be overcome are immense. EFDA will continue to do everything in its power to support its members and the European fastener distribution industry in dealing with these challenges in the best possible way.