EU Raises Malaysia Ferro-Manganese Safeguard Quota Backdated to 18 November 2025

The European Union raised Malaysia’s duty-free ferro-manganese quota under its ferro-alloy safeguard, in force Oct. 17, 2026 and backdated to Nov. 18, 2025.

The European Commission has raised Malaysia’s duty-free quota for ferro-manganese under the EU safeguard on ferro-alloys, backdated to Nov. 18, 2025.

The change comes in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2270 of Oct. 15, 2026, published in the EU’s Official Journal on Oct. 16, 2026¹. It corrects an error in the quota for one country and one product. The rest of the safeguard stays the same.

In short, more ferro-manganese from Malaysia can now enter the EU without the extra safeguard duty. Each quarter, about 9,000 to 9,340 tonnes from Malaysia can enter duty-free under the corrected quota.

What is the EU safeguard on ferro-alloys?

A safeguard is a temporary limit on imports from all countries. A government uses it when a sudden rise in imports seriously harms its own industry. The EU imposed this one through Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2351 of Nov. 18, 2025².

Ferro-alloys are metals made from iron mixed with other elements such as manganese or silicon. Steel makers add them to make steel stronger, harder and better at resisting rust³. The Commission says the EU industry that makes them employs some 1,800 people³.

The measure uses a tariff-rate quota, a set amount of goods that can enter without the extra duty³. Each supplying country has its own quota for each type of ferro-alloy³. The measure runs for three years and ends on Nov. 17, 2028³.

How do the quota and the extra duty work?

Goods inside a country’s quota enter the EU free of the safeguard duty³. Goods above the quota can still enter duty-free if their price is above a set minimum price³. Below that price, they pay an extra duty.

The press release explains how that duty is set. It equals the difference between the import price at the EU border and the minimum price for that product type³. The press release calls the border price the "net free-at-Union-frontier price".

The Commission explains this choice in the amending regulation. It says a quota for each product type, combined with a variable duty above the quota, balances the interests involved¹. A cheap shipment above the quota pays more. A shipment priced above the minimum pays nothing extra.

Why did the Commission change Malaysia’s quota?

When it set the quotas, the Commission set them 25% below the average imports of 2022, 2023 and 2024¹. So each country’s quota depends directly on its import figures for those three years.

After the safeguard began, a lawyer for a Malaysian company contacted the Commission¹. The company said Malaysia’s quota was wrong because the 2022 import figures for Malaysia were incomplete¹.

The Commission investigated the claim and agreed. Some 2022 imports of ferro-manganese from Malaysia had been marked confidential in the public figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office¹. As a result, nearly 40,700 tonnes of imports were left out of the calculation¹.

How large was the error in the 2022 figures?

The Commission had counted only 581 tonnes of Malaysian imports for 2022¹. The correct figure was 41,279.3 tonnes¹. Because the quota rests on a three-year average, the low 2022 figure pulled Malaysia’s quota down.

The amending regulation says the 2022 volume must be corrected¹. It also says Malaysia’s quota must be recalculated and increased¹. Article 1 replaces the part of the quota table for Malaysia in Annex III of the 2025 regulation¹.

The amending regulation does not publish the old quota volumes for Malaysia. It gives only the new ones. The size of the increase therefore cannot be read from the new regulation alone.

Which goods does the change cover?

The change covers only ferro-manganese, an alloy of iron and manganese used in steelmaking¹. It falls under codes 7202 11 and 7202 19 of the Harmonized System and the EU’s Combined Nomenclature, the customs code lists¹.

Only goods from Malaysia are affected. The corrected quota uses order number 09.8819¹.

The 2025 regulation covers a wider group of ferro-alloys². The Commission first looked at silicon and manganese-based alloys, including ferro-silicon, ferro-silico-manganese, ferro-silico-magnesium and calcium-silicon². It later removed pure silicon and calcium-silicon from the measure². Silicon imports had not risen, and the EU does not produce calcium-silicon². The amending regulation changes none of these other products.

What are the new quota volumes for Malaysia?

The quota is split into quarters, each about three months long. Each year of the measure starts on Nov. 18¹. The new volumes, in net tonnes, are:

• Year 1 (Nov. 18, 2025 to Nov. 17, 2026): 9,330.47 tonnes in the first, third and fourth quarters, and 9,026.21 tonnes in the second quarter¹.
• Year 2 (Nov. 18, 2026 to Nov. 17, 2027): 9,339.80 tonnes in the first, third and fourth quarters, and 9,035.24 tonnes in the second quarter¹.
• Year 3 (Nov. 18, 2027 to Nov. 17, 2028): 9,323.59 tonnes in the first, third and fourth quarters, and 9,120.91 tonnes in the second quarter¹.

Added together, the four quarters give Malaysia about 37,000 tonnes of duty-free ferro-manganese each year. The second quarter, from Feb. 18 to May 17, is shorter, which explains its smaller volume.

The extra duty above the quota does not change. The new table refers to Annex II of the 2025 regulation for the duty rate¹.

When does the correction apply?

The amending regulation enters into force on the day after its publication¹. It was published on Oct. 16, 2026, so it takes effect on Oct. 17, 2026¹.

It applies from Nov. 18, 2025, the first day of the safeguard¹. The Commission says the correction must take effect from the date the 2025 regulation entered into force¹. In other words, the larger quota counts for the whole period since the measure began.

The regulation does not set out how customs will treat Malaysian shipments that already paid the extra duty.

Who is affected by the larger quota?

The main winners are makers of ferro-manganese in Malaysia and EU buyers of their metal. More of their shipments can now enter the EU without the safeguard duty. The Malaysian company that raised the error started the correction¹.

EU steel makers that buy Malaysian ferro-manganese gain a larger duty-free supply. The press release says the measure was designed to limit the effect on the European value chain³.

EU ferro-alloy makers face slightly more duty-free competition from Malaysia. The Commission opened the case after France, Poland and Slovakia asked for it, with support from Spain². The press release says imports rose by 17% between 2019 and 2024³. Over the same period, the share of the EU market held by EU producers fell from 38% to 24%³.

How did the safeguard case unfold?

The Commission opened the safeguard investigation on Dec. 19, 2024⁴. It said EU alloy makers faced rising imports because of global overcapacity and more trade limits in other big markets⁴.

In July 2025, the Commission proposed a temporary safeguard while the case continued². After talks in the Safeguard Committee, made up of EU member states, it decided not to impose one². It extended the investigation by 2 months on Sep. 16, 2025².

The final measure came on Nov. 18, 2025². It applies to all non-EU countries, including Norway and Iceland³. The Commission said it would hold talks with Norway and Iceland every three months and review the effect of the measure³. The Safeguard Committee supported the Malaysian correction¹.

Key points on Malaysia’s ferro-manganese quota

The table below sums up the change.

The second year of Malaysia’s corrected quota opens on Nov. 18, 2026, with 9,339.80 tonnes for the first quarter¹. The safeguard itself ends on Nov. 17, 2028³.

Sources

1. ↩ L_202602270EN.000101.fmx.xml https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202602270
2. ↩ Implementing regulation – EU – 2025/2351 – EN – EUR-Lex https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2025/2351/oj/eng
3. ↩ Commission imposes definitive safeguard measures on certain ferroalloys https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2698
4. ↩ Commission initiates safeguard investigation into imports of alloys – Trade and Economic Security https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-initiates-safeguard-investigation-imports-alloys-2024-12-19_en