Hearing starts on Turkish mills` appeal against EU flat steel anti-dumping duty

The European Commission has begun its hearing of Turkish steel mills’ appeal against the anti-dumping duties applied by the EU on flat steel products from the Middle Eastern country, Turkish market participants told Fastmarkets on Monday March 27.
The European Commission started to apply provisional duties on Turkish hot-rolled coil in January 2021.

The products affected by the duty are certain flat-rolled products of iron, non-alloy steel or other alloy steel, whether or not in coils (including ‘cut-to-length’ and ‘narrow strip’ products), not further worked than hot-rolled, not clad, plated or coated, originating in Turkey, and currently falling under CN codes 7208 10 00, 7208 25 00, 7208 26 00, 7208 27 00, 7208 36 00, 7208 37 00, 7208 38 00, 7208 39 00, 7208 40 00, 7208 52 10, 7208 52 99, 7208 53 00, 7208 54 00, 7211 13 00, 7211 14 00, 7211 19 00, ex 7225 19 10 (TARIC code 7225191090), 7225 30 90, ex 7225 40 60 (TARIC code 7225406090), 7225 40 90, ex 7226 19 10 (TARIC code 7226191090), 7226 91 91 and 7226 91 99.

The basis of the Turkish producers’appeal was that they believed that the duties were not fair.

Despite this, the Commission applied definitive anti-dumping duties on Turkish hot-rolled coil in April 2021.

Turkish mills appealed the duties in September 2021, and in May 2022 the EC scheduled a hearing. This began at the General Court of the EU on March 27 this year and will initially take two days, Turkish sources said, with a final decision expected before the end of 2023.

Kerem Cakir, chairperson of the board at the Turkish Association of Cold Rolled, Galvanized and Coated Coil Manufacturers (SOGAD), believed the flat-steel sector in Turkey needed support to increase its exports.

The European Commission also applied anti-dumping duties on hot-dipped galvanized coil imports from Turkey.

Meanwhile, Turkey imposed an anti-dumping duty on HRC imports from the EU and South Korea in July 2022.

The export market for HRC is very slow in Turkey because of the duties, according to market participants.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel HRC, export, fob main port Turkey, was $830-840 per tonne on March 24, falling by $10 per tonne week on week from $840-850 per tonne.

Turkish flat steel export volumes decreased by 30.11% in 2022, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

And the country exported only 170,862 tonnes of flat steel products in January 2023, it added, down by 58.81% compared with 414,815 tonnes exported in January 2022.

Published by: Serife Durmus