Eurofer welcomes extension of antidumping measures on G-O sheet

European steel producer association Eurofer said Jan. 18 that it welcomes the extension of European anti-dumping measures for a further five years on imports of grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US.

Grain oriented electrical steel, or GOES, is a highly specialized steel product manufactured by only around 20 mills globally, of which four are located in the EU, at Stalprodukt, in the Czech Republic; ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel in Isbergues, France; ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel GmbH, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany; and Stalprodukt Bochnia in Poland.

GOES is a key component in the production of transformer cores and is crucial for the maintenance and expansion of the EU electrical grid and for further development of the e-mobility sector.

“The EU energy security and climate objectives can only be met by maintaining a viable European GOES industry,” said Axel Eggert, director general of Eurofer. “GOES is a strategic, high-end product, and the European Union cannot be dependent for its supply on foreign mills located in Asia, Russia or the United States.”

According to an official document from the European Commission, the bloc has decided that variable duties under the form of three minimum import prices (MIPs) for three different product categories of GOES are the most appropriate measures.

“The three MIPs would allow the union producers to recover from the effects of injurious dumping as well as they would enable them to return to a sustainable profitability and incentivise them to make the necessary investments,” the EC said.

MIPs currently in force range between Eur1536/mt and Eur2043/mt and “they apply to the individual producers for which individual dumping margins were established from all the countries concerned, i.e. the PRC, Japan, Korea, Russia and the USA,” it said.

— Annalisa Villa