No imports of welded tube nor hollow sections arrived at European ports in January. This may be the consequence of the new European Union (EU) anti-dumping investigation into imports of hollow sections, welded tubes and pipes from Russia, Turkey and former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. Material may still be imported in February and in the months to come however, sources interviewed by Kallanish believe.
One source says that the EU is proceeding speedily with the investigation. Preliminary duties may be imposed by the end of April and definitive measures should start in September. “If duties are applied in April and they are retroactive by say 3 months, the material that is imported in February may be subjected to anti-dumping duties,”, the source comments. He adds that buyers – particularly non-English speakers – may not have been informed of this investigation or may have been misinformed therefore they are not considering the risks of importing.
The European Commission confirmed the initiation of a new anti-dumping investigation into imports of hollow sections, welded tubes and pipes from Russia, Turkey and former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia in September 2018. This followed a complaint lodged by the EU’s welded steel tube industry defence committee in August.
The products subject to this investigation are “… welded tubes, pipes and hollow profiles of square or rectangular cross-section, of iron other than cast iron or steel other than stainless, but excluding line pipe of a kind used for oil or gas pipelines and casing and tubing of a kind used in drilling for oil or gas,”.
