PCCI warns Philippines government about steel tariffs
The Philippines Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) warned government yesterday about the possible steel tariff hikes that are likely to be imposed by the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) following the demand of Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (GIHL) for tariff protection for National Steel Corp (NSC). PCCI stated that provided that the tariffs are hiked, the prices of steel products will increase, which will have an adverse effect on certain steel related sectors. As reported by SteelOrbis last week, GIHL, the new owner of NSC, demanded the government to increase duties on imported steel products to the levels of 20-30%. Upon this request, downstream industries were given two days to submit their responses to the request of GIHL. DTI has been in negotiations with downstream industry players to determine the effects of tariff hikes for some time. Although no official statement has been made so far, it is said that DTI is planning to increase the duties for hot rolled coils from 0% to 5%, for cold rolled coils from 0% to 7% and for tinplates from 3% to 7%. The duty on semis is stated to be maintained at its current level of 0%.