Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal said today the European Commission launched an anti-dumping investigation on Turkish hot-rolled coils (HRC) in April.
The Commission has not yet returned a request for comment, and neither has ArcelorMittal. No market participants, including at mills across Europe and Turkey surveyed by Argus this morning, have been made aware of the move. European steel association Eurofer declined to comment, saying “we constantly monitor trade flows to and from the EU to assess whether trade is being conducted under fair conditions”.
European mills, led by ArcelorMittal, have been pushing for action against Turkish HRC for years, and sources close to the matter said efforts have intensified recently with the mills gathering evidence to present to the Commission, amid increasing imports and declining demand across the continent especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Turkey was flagged in a previous dumping case against other countries but subsequently removed.
By Lora Stoyanova