Hyundai Steel complains about Chinese exports

South Korean steelmaker Hyundai Steel has announced that it is planning to request an anti-dumping investigation against the Chinese mills which have substantially undercut Hyundai's market share with low-priced products. The company said that they will in particular request an anti-dumping investigation regarding H-beams, which are widely used in the construction of buildings and bridges. While Chinese firms exported 62,808 tons of H-beams in 2004, the amount jumped 257 percent to 224,050 tons last year. During the first nine months of this year, Korean imports of H-beams stood at 601,982 tons - an approximate 4.5-fold increase compared to the same period of last year. As a result, the market share of Chinese H-beams in South Korea increased to more than 20 percent, threatening business leader Hyundai Steel, which accounts for roughly half of the demand in the Korean market.