The European Commission has announced that it has initiated an antidumping (AD) investigation against certain hot rolled product imports from Turkey. The investigation was launched upon the complaint by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) and will cover the period between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019.
The provisional measures are expected to be announced by December 15, 2020, while the definitive measures are scheduled for June 12, 2021.
The development has not come as a big surprise to market players as the previous few weeks have been filled with various rumors and expectations of a trade case. However, a lot of Turkish sources believe the investigation is not a fair one and that hardly any dumping will be proved. In addition, no significant immediate effect is expected pricewise, taking into account a rather long period before the provisional measures are announced. “For now, HRC imports [to the EU] will continue as before with hardly any effect from the AD case, I assume. Turkey is now offering mainly for July shipments, so there is still time,” a producer told SteelOrbis.
The EU already has import quotas in place on certain steel products including HRC imports from Turkey. In September 2019, the EU made some adjustments to quota volumes, imposing a limitation of 30 percent on the share of the global quota of HRC that any single exporting country can reach per quarter. Currently, the EU is again considering further changes in the quota system, including some possible volume reductions. In fact, some Turkish market sources are more concerned regarding the possible quota volume reduction rather than about the AD case. “New quotas will be opened as soon as July starts, while the AD case is vague for now and the duty, if any at all, will be imposed months from now,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
The products subject to the AD investigation currently fall under Customs Statistics Position Numbers 7208 10 00, 7208 25 00, 7208 26 00, 7208 27 00, 7208 36 00, 7208 37 00, 7208 38 00, 7208 39 00, 7208 40 00, 7208 52 10, 7208 52 99, 7208 53 10, 7208 53 90, 7208 54 00, 7211 13 00, 7211 14 00, 7211 19 00, 7225 19 10, 7225 30 90, 7225 40 60, 7225 40 90, 7226 19 10, 7226 91 91 and 7226 91 99.
