What does the ESPR change for the steel sector?

What you must concretely do

The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) is a framework regulation. This means that the regulation itself does not designate product groups and does not set requirements for steel specifically — that only happens later via delegated acts that are adopted for each product group. What the ESPR does do is set out in Article 1: it establishes the system by which the EU can impose ecodesign, information obligations and the digital product passport on almost every category of physical product that comes onto the European market. For the steel sector, this represents a change of a different order than the usual standards and certifications: there comes an obligation to keep product information available digitally, in a structured format and for the entire lifespan of the product.

What is expected of you

Determining whether the product falls within a product group

Not every semi-finished steel product automatically receives a passport. This depends on which product groups the Commission designates in a delegated act, and at what level: a plate, a profile, a composed part. A company with 10 to 100 employees that trades in plates, tubes or profiles is well advised to monitor per product line which steel sector products will fall under the ESPR as soon as the Commission provides clarity on this. This cannot yet be determined on the basis of the regulation itself.

Making a distinction between semi-finished product and end product

The ESPR does not only affect end products. Semi-finished products may also require a passport, depending on how the product group is defined and at which point in the supply chain the obligation is imposed. For a steel trader that resells material to a construction company, this is a real point of attention: whether the passport also applies to semi-finished steel products namely determines who in the supply chain must provide the data and who only passes it on.

Collecting and submitting data

Once a product group has been designated, there comes an obligation to record certain data about the product — think of origin, composition, or properties that are relevant for reuse and recycling. In practical terms, this means that a manufacturer or importer of steel must be able to provide this data to whoever compiles the passport. For a mid-sized company, this is often an organisational task: data that is now scattered across internal systems, certificates and supplier documentation must be brought together in a form suitable for a passport.

Keeping the passport and the data carrier available

A product passport must remain accessible throughout the lifespan of the product via a data carrier, usually a QR code on or near the product. This is not a one-off action: the passport must be accessible to parties further along the supply chain, even years later. A company that processes or resells steel is thus faced with the question of how long and in what way this data will remain available, and who is responsible for this if the company does not take on that role itself.

Determining who may view which data

Not all data in a passport is visible to everyone. Some information is intended for supervisory authorities, some for the next link in the supply chain, and some for the end user. This raises a question that is sensitive for many steel companies: whether commercially sensitive data on composition or process must be made public. The regulation provides for layered access, but the precise implementation of this also follows from the delegated acts for each product group.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of situations commonly arise in practice for companies preparing for the product passport:

• Starting too early with the wrong assumption. A company thinks the obligation is already established for its product, whereas the relevant delegated act has not yet been published. Investment is made in systems that later do not comply with the final requirements.

• Collecting data without structure. A company starts collecting documentation on composition and origin, but does this ad hoc, without a fixed format. When the requirements become concrete, the work must be done again.

• Lack of clarity between supplier and purchaser. A steel trader assumes the manufacturer will provide the digital product passport; the manufacturer assumes the trader will do so because the trader processes the product. This is not established in advance.

• Confusion about what must be publicly available. A company shares more data than necessary as a precaution, or too little, because it is unclear which data must be visible to which party.

• No attention to the long retention period. A company focuses on the moment of sale, but forgets that the digital product passport and the data carrier must remain accessible over years, even if the company itself switches systems or discontinues a product line.

What you can document

Even before the delegated act is in place, it is practical to arrange a number of things:

• An overview per product line of which steel semifinished and finished products the company brings to market, so that it can be quickly determined whether the digital product passport will apply to the company's own steel as soon as the regulations become concrete.
• An inventory of which data on origin, composition and processing are already available, and in which systems.
• Agreements with suppliers and purchasers about who supplies which data, in anticipation of the question which data will have to be included in the digital product passport for steel.
• A note of the contact person and the process for keeping track of changes in the regulations, including the question when the digital product passport for steel becomes mandatory.
• A note on which data the company considers commercially sensitive, so that this discussion does not only arise when a digital product passport actually has to be compiled.

This preparation does not establish obligations that do not yet exist, but ensures that a company does not start from scratch as soon as the first delegated act for steel is published.