Japanese could leave Thailand because of AD duties on HR imports

Japanese could leave Thailand because of AD duties on HR imports

The Japanese Chamber of Commerce (JCC) has publicly announced that it is against the anti-dumping duties on hot-rolled sheet imports proposed by the Ministry of Commerce in Thailand. The JCC is of the opinion that such measures would have a serious negative impact on local businesses. The ministry had announced its plan to introduce new tariffs on hot rolled sheet imports from 14 countries on May 16th. The countries listed include Japan and South Korea as well. As a matter of fact the demand of anti-dumping duties were initiated originally by SSI (Sahaviriya Steel Industries), Thailand's sole hot rolled sheet producer. The company has been complaining about the hot rolled sheet imports for a long while. On the other hand, the two rerollers, i.e. TCR (Thai Cold Rolled Steel Sheet) and SUS (Siam United Steel), of which the major shareholders are Japanese firms, have been strongly complaining about the action as they import most of the hot rolled steel they use, from their parent companies in Japan. Both companies have even expressed that if the anti-dumping duties become effective, it will have a huge negative impact on their businesses and they may have to consider ceasing operations and leaving Thailand. They also added that if they are to cease operations, their customers in automobile, electrical appliance, and steel furniture industries would suffer as well. The output of two companies combined is about 1.6 million tons of cold rolled steel sheet per annum. Most of that quantity is sold locally in Thailand, with about 350'000 tons being exported. The president of Toyota Motor Thailand had also expressed his concern on the issue urging the Thai government to exempt all hot rolled steel sheet for cold rolling. On the other hand, SSI has defended its request for the investigation of the hot rolled sheet imports from 14 countries. It has emphasized that, there are actually three cold rollers in Thailand, and one of them, which is a subsidiary of the world's leading steel producer, buys most of its hot rolled sheet requirements domestically whereas the other two, TCR and SUS, prefer to import mostly from Japan.