China's steelmakers have criticized a US Department of Commerce (DOC) decision to impose preliminary antidumping duties on steel grating imports from China. According to a report by the country's official news agency Xinhua, some of the Chinese producers are getting prepared to appeal against the measure.
As SteelOrbis reported, the DOC announced Tuesday, December 29, that it will impose preliminary antidumping duties at 14.36 to 145.18 percent on steel grating imported from China, as these products were sold at price levels that caused an unfair trade advantage. The US-based Alabama Metal Industries and Fisher & Ludlow had asked the US government to investigate the matter in May 2009. The DOC is expected to take a final decision on the matter next April.
According to the Xinhua report, the Chinese government data indicate that the country exported no more than 20,000 mt of steel gratings to the US in 2008, worth around $20 million, as opposed to the DOC's claim that the US imported 60,000 mt of steel gratings worth $91 million from China during the year in question.
"The US measure is unreasonable. The figures they provided are incorrect," said Wang Jianguo, a spokesperson for Ningbo-based Jiulong Machinery Manufacturing, a steel gratings producer now subject to a US antidumping duty of 14.36 percent. "It's nothing but trade protectionism. They are making up a story to convince the world, but they are wrong." The company is set to appeal against the US government decision in January, although its spokesperson gave no further details.
Since steel gratings do not constitute a large share of the exports of Chinese steel producers, "the impact on Chinese exporters of steel gratings is not that big," Yu Liangui, vice director of the Shanghai-based MySteel Research Institute, a major steel consultancy, was quoted as saying. "But the concern is, many other (cases) will follow suit," he added.