EU imposes provisional India, Indonesia stainless CRC duties

The EU has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties of 13.6-34.6% on imports of stainless steel cold-rolled flat products originating in India and Indonesia.

This follows the conclusion of the European Commission’s investigation initiated last August after a complaint lodged by European steelmakers’ association Eurofer (see Kallanish passim).

The measures cover products under HS codes 7219 31 00, 7219 32 10, 7219 32 90, 7219 33 10, 7219 33 90, 7219 34 10, 7219 34 90, 7219 35 10, 7219 35 90, 7219 90 20, 7219 90 80, 7220 20 21, 7220 20 29, 7220 20 41, 7220 20 49, 7220 20 81, 7220 20 89, 7220 90 20 and 7220 90 80.

The Commission found that EU consumption of said products in the investigation period (IP) of 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 was 3.21 million tonnes versus 3.44mt in full-year 2019 and 3.72mt in 2018. Imports were 198,016t in the IP versus 178,098t in 2019 and 155,377t in 2018.

Production was 3.11mt in IP, 3.38mt in 2019 and 3.64mt in 2018; production capacity was 4.57m t/year in IP, 4.53m t/y in 2019 and 4.52m t/y in 2018; and capacity utilisation was 68% in IP, 75% in 2019 and 81% in 2018.

Local industry sales were 2.33mt in IP, 2.53mt in 2019 and 2.71mt in 2018.

“It is expected that the imposition of provisional anti-dumping duties will restore fair trading conditions on the Union market, end the price suppression and enable the Union industry to cover their increasing costs of production and improve their financial situation despite lost sales due to a shrinking market,” the Commission says.

“Notwithstanding potential anti-dumping measures the Commission provisionally concluded that there will remain a healthy level of competition in the Union given that there are 13 Union producers of the product under investigation, some of them not taking part in the complaint,” the Commission adds. Furthermore, imports from third countries still account for more than 20% of the market, meaning the potential negative impacts indicated by the importers are not likely to occur, it concludes.