On Tuesday 28 February, the European Commission adopted a regulation imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and collecting definitively the provisional duty imposed on imports of certain heavy plate of non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in the People's Republic of China.
The Commission's anti-dumping investigation was opened after a complaint was lodged by the European steel industry (Eurofer) in January 2016 on behalf of producers representing over 25% of total heavy plate steel production in the EU. The investigation found Chinese companies to be heavily dumping their products on the EU market, and it revealed dumping margins of between 120% and 127%.
This unfair competition causes significant injury to EU producers. Most of the injury indicators clearly show a negative trend – in particular, profitability and return on investments, the Commission states.
Imports of Chinese heavy steel plates will therefore be taxed with anti-dumping duties ranging from 65% to 73%. These duties are the same as those imposed provisionally in October 2016 and are at the level of the injury margin, based on the lesser duty rule.
With these new anti-dumping taxes, the EU has adopted an unprecedented number of trade defence measures targeting unfair imports of steel products from third countries – a total of 41 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, 18 of which are on products from China. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)