The European Commission has announced that it has launched an antidumping duty investigation regarding cold rolled stainless steel product imports from China and Taiwan, following a complaint filed by the European Steel Association (EUROFER).
EUROFER director general Gordon Moffat welcomed the EC's decision and said imports of cold rolled stainless steel products from China and Taiwan were sold at dumped prices and caused significant injury to the EU stainless steel industry, adding that "this was no longer sustainable. The complaint shows that the dumping margin from these two countries reaches 20 percent."
According to EURFOER, during the last three years, the European producers of stainless steel flat rolled products carried out significant restructuring operations to reduce overcapacities, improve their performance and maintain their competitive edge in the global market. But over the same period China has built up huge capacities that are economically unjustified. Their increased output cannot be absorbed domestically. As a result they are flooding the markets which are still unprotected like the EU. Taiwan has also a structural overcapacity problem and excess production which they download on export markets, particularly in Europe.
The products under the antidumping duty investigation currently fall within CN codes 7219 31 00, 7219 32 10, 7219 32 90, 7219 33 10, 7219 33 90, 7219 34 10, 7219 34 90, 7219 35 10, 7219 35 90, 7220 20 21, 7220 20 29, 7220 20 41, 7220 20 49, 7220 20 81 and 7220 20 89.