Brussels, 16/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to impose from 17 September provisionally for six months an anti-dumping duty of 25% on imports of certain cold-rolled flat stainless steel products from the United States. The company AK Steel Corporation benefits from a reduced antidumping duty of 20.6% due to its good cooperation in the investigation, and a price differential that is smaller than its competitors between prices practised on the US market and the European market. These products are essentially used by the motor industry to manufacture silencers and exhaust emission control systems. The measure comes in the wake of a complaint by the European Steel Association (EUROFER), filed on 4 November 2002 on behalf of producers representing over 80% of total Community production. The European Commission services opened a formal inquiry on 17 December. They mainly carried out on-the-spot inspections with certain Community producers (Ugine SA France, Thyssen Krupp Germany and Italy), exporters (AK Steel Corporation USA) and importers (AK Steel Limited, United Kingdom).
According to the conclusions of the investigation, there is dumping. Imports from the United States rose considerably between 1999 and the period covered by the investigation, both in absolute terms (+127%) and in market share terms (+ six to eight points).
Also, these imports had a downward effect on prices. Prices of imports from the United States were considerably underquoted compared to those of the Community industry, by 13.2%. The market for these products in the European Union is evaluated at EUR 182 million annually (consumption); American imported products amount to EUR 26 million.