EC confirms definitive duties on Chinese plate

The European Commission has concluded its investigation regarding imports of heavy plate from China. It has confirmed definitive anti-dumping duties of a similar magnitude of the provisional measures imposed in October 2016, Kallanish understands from an official release.

The duties imposed range from 65.1% to 73.7% depending on the supplier, with Minmetals Yingkou Medium Plate Co being the company with the lower level of duties thanks to its cooperation during the investigation. Duties will be applicable to all imports from China of plates of “… a thickness exceeding 10mm and of a width of 600mm or more, or of a thickness of 4,75mm or more but not exceeding 10mm and of a width of 2050mm or more”.

As reported, the EC imposed the registration of imports of heavy plates since August 2016, as it continued its investigation. Since then the imports of heavy plates from China into Europe have lowered significantly therefore the Commission has decided that the definitive duties will not be collected retroactively.

In 2015 the average monthly import volume of such product from China stood well above 100,000 tonnes/month. The level in Q2-Q3 2016 however fell by over -35% y-o-y.

The investigation was initiated in February 2016 following the complaint lodged by Eurofer, the Europen steelmakers association. In August 2016 the registration process began and in October 2016 provisional measures were imposed, as reported.