Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The EU is to impose provisional antidumping duties for a period of six months on imports of cold-rolled flat stainless steel from China and Taiwan, according to a decision published in the Official Journal of the EU on Wednesday 25 March.
According to the companies concerned, the provisional antidumping duties, calculated according to the injury margin assessed by the European Commission, range from 10.9% to 12% for Taiwanese products and from 24.3% to 25.2% for goods from China. However, some Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers who cooperated in the investigation do not feature on the list of companies subject to sanctions.
Following up on a complaint lodged by Eurofer, the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries, the Commission opened an antidumping investigation at the end of June 2014. In mid-August, it also opened an anti-subsidy investigation into the Chinese products. The findings of this investigation will be delivered in the next two months.
Flat cold-rolled stainless steel is used in the manufacture of many products, such as household appliances, welded tubes and medical equipment, and in the agrifood and motor vehicle industries.
Combined imports from China and Taiwan surged by 70% between 2010 and the time of the investigation and their combined market share has risen by 63%, ranging between 5.8% and 9.5% over the period. The price comparison carried out by the Commission revealed an average undercutting margin in the prices of imports from these two countries of between 9.6% and 11.3%.
The investigation concludes, at this point, that the EU industry suffered significant injury over the period considered, with a 5% fall in its production volume, leading to an 8% drop in capacity utilisation. Its loss of market share was of the order of 5%, employment fell by 11% and labour costs rose by 8%, while at the same time investment shrank by 17%. (Emmanuel Hagry)