Vietnam starts safeguard investigation on steel billet and bar imports

Vietnam's MOIT has announced that it has launched safeguard investigation on steel billet and bar imported into Vietnam, particularly from China.

Vietnamese Companies demanded that 45 percent and 33 percent duties be imposed for imports of steel billets and bars, respectively.

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Raise your voice against Chinese Steel Dumping

Chinese steel is overabundant and is shipping to world markets at cut-down prices resulting dumping of Semi-finished and Finished Steel, which has become a matter of concern.

The steel industry globally is dogged by excess production capacity estimated at about 645m tonnes, of which experts believe some 300m is in China. China produced about half the world’s 1.67bn tonnes of steel output last year and is on track to export a record of more than 100m tonnes this year.

"China now sells its excess steel to the EU market at prices that do not even cover its costs for raw materials and material transformation," said Charles de Lusignan, communications manager at steel lobbyist Eurofer.

"The overcapacity situation (in China) has led to a significant increase in exports to the world's markets," said Aditya Mittal, CEO, ArcelorMittal.

"50 percent of India’s steel imports come from Foreign Trade Association (FTA) countries. FTA nations facilitate for duty free steel being dumped from nations like China which, in turn, is hurting steel industry, domestically." says Sajjan Jindal, Chairman and MD, JSW Steel.

"The American steel industry is in a dire situation, with record imports surging in and facilities across the country being idled," said Thomas J. Gibson, head of the American Iron and Steel Institute.

It is needless to mention here, how the economy, people and companies are suffering because of Chinese dumping. Now, it is the time to approach your Government to take immediate action, so Chinese Steel dumping can be controlled and the respective Countries economic situation can stabilize and safeguarded against Chinese dumping.

If you have any queries, you can always contact me at : info@dalmiaindia.com

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Importer/Exporter

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Stainless steel body says anti-dumping duty will have negligible impact

Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), a leading stainless steel industry body, has said the recent imposition of Anti Dumping Duty (ADD) on Cold Rolled (CR) flat products will have a negligible impact as the import trend has now shifted to higher widths. It was reacting to government decision to impose ADD on CR flat products of widths between 600-1250 mm for five years after the sunset review from China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Malaysia, South Africa, Taiwan, EU and USA.

"Impact of Anti Dumping Duty will be negligible as the import trend has now shifted to higher widths and the same has been highlighted in the customs notification as well as the final findings of the Directorate General of Anti Dumping & Allied Duties (DGAD)," ISSDA said in a statement on Monday.

The duty ranges between 5 per cent and 57 per cent and will be imposed on countries including China, the US, South Africa, Thailand and Taiwan, the finance ministry said in a notification on Friday. While a 9.47 per cent duty has been levied on cold rolled flat products of stainless steel from the US, products from the EU will attract a duty of 29.41-52.56 per cent while those from Thailand will be charged at 5.39 per cent. The highest duty of 57.39 per cent has been levied on cold-rolled stainless steel items from China.

This follows a 20 per cent safeguard duty imposed on imports of specific steel items in September for 200 days. In June, the government levied anti-dumping duty on hot rolled stainless steel items from China, Malaysia and Korea. The duty ranges between $180 and $316 per tonne and will be valid for five years.

writer : Rakhi Mazumdar
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Chinese steel dumping threatens sector recovery in Europe, US

European and US steel producers are only slowly emerging from a 2008 sector meltdown, but already they are faced with a new challenge: Chinese dumping.

Chinese steel is overabundant since a sharp slowdown in the Asian giant's economy has sapped domestic demand, and is shipping to world markets at cut-down prices.

"China now sells its excess steel to the EU market at prices that do not even cover its costs for raw materials and material transformation," Charles de Lusignan, communications manager at steel lobbyist Eurofer, told AFP.

Experts on both sides of the Atlantic say China, which alone produces half of the world's steel, is sitting on an overproduction of 340 million tonnes, which is twice the amount the European Union produces in a year.

According to Eurofer numbers, Chinese steel exports to the EU doubled in 2014 from the previous year to reach 4.5 million tonnes, and are expected to come in at twice that again this year.

ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest integrated steel and mining company, pointed the finger at China when its share price fell to historic lows in the autumn.

"The overcapacity situation (in China) has led to a significant increase in exports to the world's markets," said Aditya Mittal, the company's CEO, singling out the company's core markets of Europe and the United States.

US producers say they too are feeling the pain.

"The American steel industry is in a dire situation, with record imports surging in and facilities across the country being idled," said Thomas J. Gibson, head of the American Iron and Steel Institute, an association of US producers.

Steelmakers in the EU and the US have turned to their governments and the World Trade Organization to stop the Chinese steel assault.

Some are listening. French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron warned a month ago that Europe would not accept the "Chinese dumping". - European levies -

European ministers in charge of steel have acknowledged "the gravity of the situation" but producers want immediate action.

They have started lobbying the WTO to resist China's push to win the coveted "market economy" status, which would make it easier for China's companies to defend themselves in anti-dumping cases.

If China wins market economy status, some 400,000 to 600,000 are at risk in the US steel industry, according to a recent report by North American steel producers.

The EU, meanwhile, has started challenging China, slapping anti-dumping taxes on stainless steel imports from China last March. And in May, the EU opened an investigation into the import of a number of steel products from China and Russia.

The steel crisis came up in talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister David Cameron in October.

Cameron's spokeswoman said he had "made clear there were challenges" but would not say whether he had used the phrase "dumping" during the discussion. There are hopes that China will cut production, relieving some of the downward pressure on prices.

"We have reduced more than 700 million tonnes of production capacity and you can just imagine our task to find jobs for those workers," Xi told a joint news conference in October with Cameron through a translator.

And a top executive of industry giant Baosteel Group said that month that China's steel production could eventually shrink by 20 percent.

"If we extrapolate the previous experience in Europe, the United States, Japan, their steel sectors have all gone through painful restructuring in the past, with steel output all contracting by about 20 percent," Bloomberg News quoted Baosteel chairman Xu Lejiang as saying.

News by : AFP
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India imposes anti-dumping duty on steel products

The duty has been imposed on countries such as China, US, South Africa, Thailand and Taiwan

The government has imposed an anti-dumping duty ranging from 5-57 percent on cold-rolled steel for a period of five years. The duty has been imposed on countries such as China, US, South Africa, Thailand and Taiwan. The highest duty has been levied on steel from China. This is as high as 57.39 percent. Anti-dumping duty of 9.47 percent has been levied on cold-rolled flat products of stainless steel from the US, 29.41-52.56 percent from EU and 5.39 percent from Thailand.

In a statement, the government observed:

1. There is continued dumping of the subject goods from subject countries/territories, though the volume of imports has declined after imposition of duties;

2. The performance of the domestic industry has deteriorated in the current injury period due to the impact of the dumped imports from the subject country and diversion of imports to product ranges outside the scope of the product under consideration;

3. The dumping is likely to continue and the performance of the domestic industry is likely to deteriorate, should the present anti-dumping duty is revoked.

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EU states call for action against China steel dumping

The EU’s member states have called on Brussels to deploy “the full range” of its trade defence instruments to support Europe’s embattled steel industry, which is struggling to compete against Chinese imports.

The timing of the demand for action is highly significant as Europe’s manufacturers fear that the European Commission will soon announce a proposal to recognise Beijing as a “market economy”. Such a designation would rob the EU of many of its powers to impose countervailing tariffs against unfairly cheap Chinese imports.

Europe’s steel industry has lost a fifth of its workforce since 2009 and demand remains 25 per cent below levels before the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

European steel industry executives have accused China of using its massive overcapacity at steel mills to dump products on the European market, selling them beneath the cost of production.

Officials from member states, meeting in Brussels on Monday, called for a “full and timely use of the full range of EU trade policy instruments to ensure a global level playing field”.

Trade policy is the exclusive competence of the commission, which determines tariffs and the terms of trade deals.

The steel industry’s decline, which has been highlighted by a spate of closures in the UK, cuts to the heart of a heated political debate on whether Brussels should award market economy status to China next year.

The debate hinges on the terms of China’s agreement of accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Beijing interprets this accord to mean that it will automatically become a market economy at the end of 2016.

This has piled pressure on to both the US and EU to declare whether they agree with China’s interpretations of the rules. The decision is significant as it is very difficult to impose retaliatory tariffs against a market economy, whose price structures are, by definition, supposed to be set fairly.

The strongest resistance in Europe comes from traditional manufacturing industries, such as steel, garments and bicycles.

The steel industry globally is dogged by excess production capacity estimated at about 645m tonnes, of which experts believe some 300m is in China. That is despite the shutting of plants there capable of making nearly 80m tonnes.

China produced about half the world’s 1.67bn tonnes of steel output last year and is on track to export a record of more than 100m tonnes this year.

Monday’s call for the deployment of trade instruments offers an indication that the commission could run into strong opposition from member states if it pushed ahead with market economy status for China. The UK is in favour, while Italy is opposed. France and Germany have not disclosed their positions.

Community, the main steelworkers’ union in the UK, where more than 4,000 jobs have been lost since the summer, was unimpressed by Monday’s statement from the member states.

“Council ministers and the commission have clearly failed to grasp the urgency of the situation faced by the steel industry. Steelworkers whose jobs are at risk and who are seeing the impact of the dumping of cheap steel will take very little comfort from the conclusions of today’s meeting,” said Roy Rickhuss, general secretary.

“The summit also failed to give a proper view on the impact of China gaining market economy status, which will pose an existential threat to the European steel industry.”

The steel industry has also complained that EU environmental regulation is making it uncompetitive. In response, the member states called for greater consideration of exemptions from the EU’s cap-and-trade carbon market for threatened energy-guzzling industries such as steel.

writer : Christian Oliver and Michael Pooler
The Financial Times Limited
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