vers van de pers
Definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of hot rolled coil (HRC) from four countries, along with a minimum import price (MIP), would be a “far from perfect” solution but would help to support domestic steelmakers in the EU, investment bank Jefferies has said.
The European Commission (EC) is scheduled to announce a definitive decision resulting from its anti-dumping investigation into HRC imports from Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Brazil and Serbia by October 6 this year.
The EC has now excluded Serbia from the investigation as the volumes exported from that country were low and prices have been above those for material from the other four countries, according to a preliminary document seen by Metal Bulletin.
The EC calculated anti-dumping duties on HRC from the remaining four countries in the range of 5.30-33%, according to the same document.
The EC, however, decided that an anti-dumping duty, and an MIP which takes into account the rise in raw material prices after the investigation period, would be the most appropriate measure in this case. The decision was intended to protect the interests of EU steelmakers and distributors.
If imports come in at a price equal to or higher than the MIP, no duties will be applied. If the import price is below the MIP, definitive duty would be applied at a rate to make the price equal to the value net free at the EU frontier, before duties.
The MIP will be established at around €472 ($541) per tonne cif EU ports, market sources told Metal Bulletin.
At that price, definitive duties of 9-15% should be sufficient to eliminate any unfair advantage for imports, Jefferies said.
Comparable tariffs were applied to imports of China-origin HRC in April this year, at 18-36%. This was initially perceived as disappointing, but it has restricted China to just a 3% share of EU imports, with volumes down by 89% so far this year.
“In addition, a minimum import price should further lessen the competitiveness of imports and may ultimately boost local prices, given our expectations for declining cost support for raw materials in the coming months,” Jefferies said.
The definitive decision in the HRC case will not solve the problem created by a flood of competitive imports into the EU, however. While import volumes from the four countries still involved in the case have decreased since the start of the investigation, other overseas suppliers have used this opportunity to increase their sales volumes to Europe.
HRC import volumes have surged from Turkey, India and South Korea, which together now contribute 49% of the EU’s total imports of HRC, up from 16% in the first half of 2016.
“Imports from these new source countries are clearly less damaging than [from] those [countries] now hit by tariffs – as evidenced by recent euro steel price and margin strength, even in the face of persistently high imports,” Jefferies said. “But volumes are volumes, and domestic [EU] mills will continue to fight to boost their utilisation rate.”