Turkish mills prepare China HRC anti-dumping petition

Istanbul, 27 April (Argus) — Turkish hot-rolled coil (HRC) producers are preparing to submit a petition for an anti-dumping investigation on Chinese HRC, Colakoglu chief executive Ugur Dalbeler told Argus on the sidelines of a EUROMETAL and YISAD steel conference in Istanbul today.

Turkey’s HRC imports from China have surged since the start of this year, and are likely to continue rising sharply in the coming months, after an import tax was suspended for two months following the earthquake in the country in February.

Turkish suppliers will ask the government to take into account imports in the first quarter and incoming volumes from China in its investigation.

The return of import duty on HRC is not expected to be postponed again, and is likely to take effect as planned from 1 May, Dalbeler said. In the event that a dumping duty is introduced after an investigation, Chinese material would be subject to both the new duty and the import duty.

Turkish market activity is limited at present, as attention is focused on the country’s elections that are due to be held in May, and as buyers are not looking to purchase material in a market where they expect prices to continue declining.

Buyers are struggling to shift material and their stocks are high, after large volumes of steel were secured in panic buying following the earthquakes in February, in anticipation of shortages. In addition to the shortages not materialising, the perception of tightening supply attracted strong import offers, while end-user demand fell. As a result, prices in Turkey are now correcting, not unlike what happened in the market in March-April 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, Dalbeler said.

By Lora Stoyanova