The Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) has announced that Colombia has launched three separate antidumping (AD) duty investigations for rebar, wire rod and steel section imports from Turkey. The products in question accounted for 73.9 percent of total steel exports to Colombia in January-July 2013.
According to the CIB's statement, Turkey had exported 86,374 mt of steel products to Colombia, with an export value of $59.2 million in the first seven months of 2012. With the regional steel producers' seeking to have a corner on the market, Turkey's steel exports to Colombia indicated year-on-year decreases of 69.6 percent in terms of volume and of 68.6 percent in terms of value in January-July of the current year. During the first seven months this year, Turkey's steel exports to Colombia amounted to 26,244 mt and $18.56 million.
Addressing the investigation launched by Colombia, CIB chairman Namık Ekinci said that he believes that, after the preliminary evaluations, Turkey will not be included in the investigation. He added that these investigation requests filed in the Americas recently have put a lot of pressure on the Turkish steel industry.
"The Americas is a very important export market for us. However, it is the region in which we face the most duty investigations. Regional countries have their own production and they are disturbed by us having a share in this market. Therefore, they want to impose non-tariff barriers such as launching protective measure investigations and filing antidumping suits. Currently, Turkey does not export large volumes to Colombia. The products in question account for a great part of Turkey's total steel product exports to Colombia and every country is important for us. The CIB will continue to fight these groundless claims. We are determined to maintain our market share in Colombia," said Ekinci.
The products subject to the investigation falls under Customs Tariff Statistics Position Numbers 7216.21, 7214.9,1 7216.50, 7213.10 and 7214.20.