PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Eurofer, the association that represents European steelmakers, is in advanced stages to file two antidumping cases with the European Commission, the head of the association said Tuesday.

"Imports are increasing quite dramatically," with steel imports expected to grow 27% in 2011, Gordon Moffat, Eurofer's director general said. "There's a great deal coming from China. Most the increase is coming from Southeast Asia, from China, Taiwan and Japan" and also a decent amount from neighbors such as Turkey.

"Our main concern is China and Asia. ... We think we are on fairly solid grounds for antidumping on coated sheets and stainless cold rolled sheet," he said.
He wouldn't specify when the two cases would be filed, but he acknowledged they could be filed by the end of the year.

Eurofer is looking at launching an antidumping case on stainless steel cold rolled coil against China, South Korea and Taiwan and is considering launching an antidumping case in organic coated steel against China, South Korea and India, he said.

Moffat noted that China has significant excess production capacity in stainless steel and hasn't made attempts to curb future production. He forecast China's excess stainless steel output capacity at around 6.5 million tons a year, compared with annual U.S. stainless steel demand of 1.5 million tons and annual European stainless steel demand of 3.5 million tons.

Moffat also said that China has structured a rebate on its value-added tax on steel sales that encourages Chinese steelmakers to export value-added products rather than less value-added products such as coils and heavy plates.
There has been a noticeable pick up in Chinese coil and heavy plate exports to Europe, Moffat said, but he said Eurofer wasn't pursuing trade cases in those areas because the cases were stronger in the stainless steel cold rolled sheet and color coated sheets.

Eurofer represents steelmakers such as ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's largest steelmaker, and ThyssenKrupp AG (TKA.XE), Germany's largest steelmaker.