UK needs separate Turkish HRC anti-dumping probe: sources

The UK will not be able to apply any anti-dumping measures resulting from the European Commission’s current investigation into hot rolled coil imports from Turkey, Kallanish learns from sources. If the country wishes to impose similar barriers, it will need to start a brand-new investigation of its own into these imports.

The ongoing investigation at the European level is expected to result in provisional measures being announced in January 2021. Nevertheless, because these would be the first new measures applied after Brexit has been completed, they would not apply to the UK.

Last week, Yuriy Rudyuk from Van Bael & Bellis confirmed during a Eurometal event that the UK has the possibility to transfer existing EU anti-dumping measures for use after Brexit. New measures confirmed after Brexit, however, will not qualify for this transfer and new independent investigations will need to be opened in the UK.

It is not clear if the UK will move towards opening an investigation into Turkish HRC at this stage.

According to Eurofer data, this year Turkish-origin imports of HRC have been virtually non-existent in the UK. In 2019 these surpassed 60,000 tonnes, while back in 2017 the level stood at above 80,000t. Overall, UK HRC imports this year should be around 150,000t, having surpassed 250,000t back in 2014-2015.