On December 21, the European Commission announced in the Official Journal of the European Union the initiation of an antidumping (AD) investigation on certain organic coated steel products originating in China.
The proceeding was initiated as a result of a complaint lodged on November 7, 2011 by EUROFER, the European confederation of iron and steel industries, which represents a major proportion, in this case more than 70 percent, of total EU-27 production.
The product subject to investigation is certain organic coated steel products, i.e., flat rolled products of non-alloy and alloy steel (not including stainless steel) which are painted, varnished or coated with plastics on at least one side, excluding so-called ‘sandwich panels' of a kind used for building applications, and excluding those products with a final coating of zinc dust.
All exporting producers are requested to make themselves known to the European Commission within 15 days of the date of publication, while the EC may impose provisional measures no later than nine months and will conclude the investigation within 15 months of the same date.
The product covered by the proceeding currently fall within CN codes ex 7210 70 80, ex 7212 40 80, ex 7225 99 00, ex 7226 99 70.