Steel imports from Turkey: 5 million euros of rolled steel seized in Naples laminati da 5 milioni di euro

THURSDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2026

The European Public Prosecutor's Office and Italian customs seized 454 packages of Turkish rolled steel at the port of Naples, sold by a Dubai company and declared as steel exempt from additional duties: the alleged loss in duties and VAT is about 3.5 million euros.

Steel imports from Turkey: at the port of Naples, 454 packages of rolled steel worth about 5 million euros were seized after being imported with a declaration that would have exempted them from additional EU duties. According to investigators, unpaid duties and VAT add up to about 3.5 million euros.

What was seized at the port of Naples

The seizure was requested by the Naples office of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) and carried out by the economic and financial police unit of the Guardia di Finanza in Naples together with the anti-fraud office of the Campania directorate of the Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency. It is an urgent preventive seizure order, combined with personal, premises and IT searches of the people involved, during which electronic devices were seized. The investigation started from a report by the Naples customs office on two imports made in July 2026 by an Italian metalworking company.

The scheme described by investigators involves three countries. The steel was of Turkish origin, was sold by a company registered in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and was imported into Italy through a freight forwarder that prepared and filed the customs declarations on behalf of the importer. In the declarations the goods appeared as a specific type of steel exempt from the additional duties. A physical examination and laboratory tests on one of the two shipments pointed instead to a category not eligible for the exemption. The investigation is ongoing and everyone involved is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The figures of the investigation

• Goods seized: 454 packages of rolled steel products, worth about 5 million euros.
• Alleged loss to the EU and Italian budgets: about 3.5 million euros in duties and VAT.
• Imports under investigation: two, both made in July 2026 by the same Italian company.
• Shipments checked with physical examination and laboratory tests: one out of two.
• Countries involved: Turkish origin, exporter based in Dubai, importer in Italy.

The public statements do not say which EU measure set the additional duties or which customs code was used, so this article does not attribute the case to a specific duty.

Steel imports from Turkey: the rules in force since 1 July 2026

Since 1 July 2026, steel entering the European Union has been covered by a new measure that replaced the safeguard in place since 2018. The main points, confirmed by the European Commission and by independent legal analysis:

Duty-free quotas of 18.3 million tonnes a year across 30 categories of steel products, with a 50% duty above the quota. The measure applies to imports from all countries except those of the European Economic Area, so Turkey is included. It also requires importers to state the country where the steel was first melted and poured. Within this framework, the category under which a product is declared decides whether the measure applies and therefore what it costs: a technical difference between two types of steel can be worth up to 50 points of duty once the quota is exhausted.

Who is liable for the customs declaration

The Naples case highlights a point many importers underestimate. Under Article 77 of the Union Customs Code, the debtor of the duty is the declarant. If the forwarder acts as a direct representative, it files the declaration in the importer's name, so the importer remains the declarant; as an indirect representative the forwarder declares in its own name, but the importer on whose behalf it acts is also a debtor. Either way, the importer is not protected just because someone else filled in the paperwork.

The tool designed to remove doubts on classification is Binding Tariff Information (BTI), a customs decision requested before importing which, under Article 33 of the Code, is valid for three years and binding on all customs administrations in the Union.

What it means for steel importers

The seizure does not show that routing a sale through a seller in a third country is irregular in itself: it is a common commercial practice. It does suggest that, with a 50% out-of-quota duty, customs authorities use laboratory tests on exactly the categories that make the difference. It is worth asking the producer for the mill test certificate with chemical composition and country of melting, checking it against the invoice description before shipment and, for products on the border between two categories, applying for a BTI before the first order. It also pays to know which type of representation your forwarder uses: it changes who is liable, not the fact that the importer is.

With La Merce, buyers of rolled steel from Turkey or other countries check before departure that the declared category matches the producer's mill test certificate, so a difference that can be worth up to 50 points of duty is not discovered at the port through a laboratory test.

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