The European Commission has disclosed its final findings in the antidumping investigation into imports of certain cold rolled flat steel products from India, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam, proposing definitive duties ranging from 5.6 percent to 28.0 percent and rejecting the retroactive implementation of the duties in the absence of legal requirements.
The investigation, which covered the period from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, was launched on September 18, 2025, following a complaint filed by the European Steel Association EUROFER on behalf of EU cold rolled flat steel producers. As SteelOrbis previously reported, the Commission subsequently introduced mandatory registration for the relevant imports in December 2025, allowing it to examine whether any definitive measures should be collected retroactively.
Exporters face duties of 5.6-28.0 percent
According to the Commission, the proposed definitive antidumping duty for Indian cold rolled flat steel imports amounts to 9.5 percent, while imports from Japan would be subject to a substantially higher rate of 28.0 percent. For Taiwan, the proposed duties stand at 20.7 percent for China Steel Corporation, Chung Hung Steel Corporation and other cooperating exporters, and at 27.0 percent for all other Taiwanese companies.
Vietnamese producer POSCO Vietnam and the other cooperating or noncooperating Vietnamese exporters would be subject to a uniform definitive duty of 16.0 percent.
For Turkey, the Commission has proposed a company-specific duty of 9.7 percent for Borçelik Çelik Sanayi Ticaret A.Ş. and a rate of 5.6 percent for Tatmetal Çelik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. Other cooperating Turkish producers would face a duty of 7.3 percent, while the rate applicable to all other Turkish exporters would be 9.7 percent.
Investigated imports gain significant EU market share
The Commission determined that the combined volume of imports from the five investigated origins increased by 28 percent compared with 2022, reaching approximately 1.69 million mt during the investigation period. Their aggregate share of the EU free market consequently rose from 16 percent to 23 percent, despite a slight decline from the 24 percent recorded in 2024.
Over the same period, the average price of the investigated imports decreased by 34 percent to €695/mt, with country-specific declines ranging from 30 percent to 43 percent. The Commission calculated price undercutting margins of 11.0 percent for India, 12.6 percent for Japan, 9.2 percent for Taiwan, 5.1-13.4 percent for Turkey and 10.7 percent for Vietnam.
According to the European Commission, this increasing volume of low-priced imports exerted substantial downward pressure on the EU market and prevented European producers from maintaining their sales prices. While EU free-market consumption declined by ten percent, the EU industry's sales fell by 15 percent and its market share decreased from 70 percent in 2022 to 66 percent during the investigation period. The Commission also found significant deterioration in profitability, cash flow and return on investment, concluding that the EU cold rolled flat steel industry had suffered material injury directly linked to the dumped imports.
EC finds material injury but rejects retroactive duties
Nevertheless, the Commission rejected EUROFER's request for the retroactive collection of definitive duties on imports registered since December 2025. It stated that retroactive collection under the relevant EU legislation is intrinsically connected to the previous introduction of provisional measures. Since no provisional duties were imposed during the present investigation, the Commission concluded that the legal conditions required for retroactive application had not been met.
The products subject to antidumping duty investigation fall under Customs Tariff Statistics Position Numbers ex 7209 15 00, 7209 16 90, 7209 17 90, 7209 18 91, ex 7209 18 99, ex 7209 25 00, 7209 26 90, 7209 27 90, 7209 28 90, 7211 23 30, ex 7211 23 80, ex 7211 29 00, 7225 50 80, and 7226 92 00.
