China's steel sector hit by new round of anti-dumping probes

24/05/2015 12:00 - 488 Views

China's steel producers are dealing with what the sector has described as a "Black May" after several countries followed Europe and launched or have decided to launch investigations into alleged dumping.

In mid-May, the European Union started an investigation into claims that China and Russia were selling cold-rolled flat steel for the manufacture of cars and home appliances at below market prices. The EU also decided to impose provisional anti-dumping tariffs on steel products from China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United States after considering a complaint lodged by European steel producers in June 2014.

Duties of 28.7% were imposed on China's Baosteel and Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp for their grain-oriented electrical steel, which is used mainly by power producers and distributors. Other countries such as Canada, Peru and Brazil also plan to launch or have launched similar investigations.

Mexican businesses meanwhile are calling for a government anti-dumping tariff on Chinese steel imports, while Turkey has hiked its tax on steel imports from China, which jumped nearly 300% during the first three months of the year.

China's steel exports surged 32.7% year-on-year in the period January to April, an increase that the country's Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Shen Danyang attributed to strong demand in Western markets rather than cheaper prices. However, there is a view in Western countries that China has been dumping steel products to get rid of surplus inventory built up in recent years.

Late last year, China tried to deal with the trade dispute by removing the tax rebate on exports of steel alloys that contain boron, but the move failed to ease the concerns.

Source: WantChinaTimes