EU imposes registration on some stainless flat imports

The European Union (EU) has asked the region’s customs authorities to register imports of hot rolled stainless steel flat products from China, Indonesia and Taiwan. This is an extension to the anti-dumping investigation requested in June and begun last August (see Kallanish 13 August 2019). The action had been prompted by the original complainant in the case, Eurofer, following a further increase in imports between August and November.

The products covered are hot rolled stainless steel flat products falling under HS codes 7219 11, 7219 12, 7219 13, 7219 14, 7219 22, 7219 23, 7219 24, 7220 11 and 7220 12. There are some exclusions and these codes are given for information only, the EU says in its notice in the Official Journal of the European Union monitored by Kallanish.

The overall increase in import volumes of the said products between August and November was 10% when compared with those in the original investigation period, the EU confirms. Within this, imports from China grew by 50%, those from Taiwan rose by 14% and smaller volumes from Indonesia actually fell by -75%. The complainants also say that any 25% safeguard duty applied to these products is an insufficient deterrent as dumping margins, particularly from China at 54%, negate the effect of the safeguards.

Registration will continue for 9 months as from 24 January 2019 and allows the EU to impose tariffs retrospectively on import transactions if required.