In a forceful statement published Friday on LinkedIn, Evangelos Mytilineos, chairman and CEO of Metlen, condemned what he described as “criminal mistakes” in European industrial and environmental policy — errors he believes are driving core manufacturing sectors out of Europe and into regions powered by cheap coal and unchecked emissions.
Mytilineos’s comments come in response to a recent Bloomberg report titled "Chinese Tycoons Are Turning Indonesia Into an Aluminum Giant" (July 9, 2025), which outlines the rapid transformation of Indonesia into a dominant force in global metals production. Just ten years ago, the country accounted for 7% of the world’s nickel output. Today, thanks to a wave of investment from Chinese industrialists and abundant, low-cost coal, that figure has soared to nearly 60%. A similar trend is now reshaping the aluminium sector. Indonesia’s vast bauxite reserves, combined with inexpensive labor and coal-fired energy, are enabling the emergence of a powerful smelting industry — one that operates with virtually no carbon costs.
This, Mytilineos argues, is the exact opposite of what Europe’s climate strategy intends. And yet, it is the continent’s own aluminium value chain — notably alumina processing and recycling — that is being penalized under the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS). These two segments of the industry, which produce significantly fewer emissions than primary smelting, are subjected to a one-size-fits-all benchmark that fails to reflect their lower carbon footprint. As a result, European producers face escalating costs that undermine their global competitiveness, despite being among the cleanest operators in the world.
In his critique, Mytilineos echoes a growing concern shared by many across the European metals sector. In a recent letter from industry leaders coordinated by European Aluminium, executives warned that the current ETS framework not only fails to incentivize greener production, but actively harms it. The message is clear: Europe is taxing the cleanest producers while allowing carbon-heavy expansion outside its borders to continue unchecked.
Mytilineos argues that urgent reform is needed. He calls for a revision of ETS benchmarks to reflect the specific emissions profiles of alumina refining and recycling, which in many cases produce 90–95% fewer emissions than traditional smelting. He also advocates for a temporary halt on punitive ETS charges targeting producers of critical raw materials — a “stop-the-clock” measure, as he describes it — to prevent irreparable damage to Europe’s industrial base.
His warning is blunt: unless European policymakers correct course, they risk accelerating the deindustrialization of the continent, handing over strategic production capacity to regions where carbon has no cost and environmental standards are minimal. The long-term consequence, he cautions, is not just economic decline — but the erosion of Europe’s position in the global industrial landscape.
