EU extends China heavy plate anti-dumping duties

The European Commission has extended the EU’s definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of certain heavy plate from China. The duty rates remain in the range of 65.1-73.7%, Kallanish notes.

This follows the conclusion of an expiry review petitioned for by Eurofer to extend definitive duties levied in 2017.

The product concerned falls under CN codes ex 7208 51 20, ex 7208 51 91, ex 7208 51 98, ex 7208 52 91, ex 7208 90 20, ex 7208 90 80, 7225 40 40, ex 7225 40 60 and ex 7225 99 00.

The review concluded that the absence of measures “would in all likelihood result in a significant increase of dumped imports from the PRC [People’s Republic of China] at injurious prices and material injury originally caused by dumped imports from China would be likely to recur”.

In 2021, the review period, EU domestic industry produced 9.44 million tonnes of the product, from a capacity of 13.45mt, according to the review document. Imports from China however dropped to 1,778t, giving them an EU market share of 0.02% considering EU consumption of 8.38mt.

The China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) claimed during the review that the duty should be suspended because of growth expectations of the Union’s downstream industry and the increasing scarcity in the Union market, the expected economic recovery in the post-Covid period, the price increases of the product concerned, and the expected decrease in volume of imports from Russia and Ukraine. However, the Commission says it rejected this claim as it was unsubstantiated.

Adam Smith Poland