EU trade officials have approved the imposition of a definitive antidumping (AD) duty on Chinese seamless pipe and tube imports.
According to European sources, EU trade officials voted on Tuesday, July 28 for the imposition of definitive antidumping duties on Chinese seamless pipe and tube ranging from 17.7 percent to 39.2 percent, expected to take effect in October and to last five years.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the European Commission (EC) imposed provisional duties up to 24.2 percent in April, 2009. The import volume data for the European Union market obtained from Eurostat show that the market share of Chinese seamless pipe and tube imports was 17.1 percent in the investigation period from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.
2005 | 2006 | 2007 | Investigation period | |
Total EU consumption (mt) | 2,565,285 | 2,706,560 | 3,150 729 | 3,172,866 |
China's imports (mt) | 26,396 | 136,850 | 470,413 | 542,840 |
China's market share | 1.0% | 5.1% | 14.9% | 17.1% |
On July 9, 2008, the EC announced the initiation of an antidumping proceeding with regard to imports into the EU of certain seamless pipes and tubes of iron or steel originating in China, as a result of a complaint lodged on May 28, 2008 by the Defence Committee of the Seamless Steel Tubes Industry of the EU on behalf of producers representing a major proportion of the EU industry, including the world's largest producer by volume, ArcelorMittal. The European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (EUROFER) has also been active in lobbying in support of the antidumping measure in question.
As SteelOrbis recently reported, in its report welcoming the EC's 24 percent definitive antidumping duty on Chinese wire rod, EUROFER complained that the European market was an open target to dumping risks due to the complete absence of protectionist measures as well as due to growing protectionist measures elsewhere.
At the end of last year, the EU also imposed a definitive antidumping duty on welded steel tubes from China as well as from Russia and Belarus, with a China-wide rate of 90.6 percent imposed on imports of welded tubes and pipes from China.