EU importers fill first-quarter automotive HDG safeguard quota

The quota for automotive HDG imported into the EU from all countries except China, Korea, India and Taiwan have been exhausted until the end of March, Kallanish learns from official data.

The new permanent safeguard system assigned slightly less than 50,000t of quota for automotive grade HDG in the period February-March for all countries, excluding the main importers. This quota is allocated quarterly, as opposed to the country-based quotas which are set annually. The first quarter quota is now filled just over two weeks after having been set.

Importers of automotive grade HDG from countries such as Turkey, Vietnam or Japan will now have to wait until the beginning of April to clear their material at the European customs.

The general automotive grade HDG quota is the third to be exhausted following the launch of the new permanent safeguard system at the beginning of February. Quotas for rebar and wire rod originating from Turkey are full until the beginning of July 2019.

Automotive grade HDG steels were divided from the general HDG product in 2016 during the decision on antidumping duties to protect the automotive sector from being overly-impacted by the new AD measures. In the current safeguard system, the allocation has been increased by 50% in the definitive measure compared to the first draft following a complaint by the European carmakers’ association ACEA in January.