Mexico’s economy secretariat (SE) said on Wednesday it will continue an ongoing anti-dumping (AD) investigation into the imports of steel plate from Italy and Japan, following a request from local producer Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA), which was filed on July 19, 2017.
SE has been investigating the imports of the products since then, and has not yet issued a decision. SE gave the interested parties 20 days to submit their arguments as the AD probe continues.
The products subject to the AD probe fall under the HTS codes 7208.51.01, 7208.51.02, 7208.51.03, 7208.52.01 and 7225.40.99,.
A number of steel importers, including Aceros Fercom, Andritz Hydro, Grupo Acerero, and Mitsui, as well as exporters, such as JFE Steel, Kobe Steel and Nippon Steel, opposed AHMSA’s arguments. Aceros Fercom said AHMSA cannot produce the steel products Aceros Fercom sells. It added the imports of the investigated products will not affect AHMSA’s production.
Andritz Hydro said the steel plate market is “limited,” and local providers for the product require high purchase orders, making it harder for Andritz to compete. Meanwhile, Mitsui labeled AHMSA’s request as “illegal,” since the methods to calculate exporting prices from Japan are allegedly not accurate. Mitsui argued the product it imports from Japan is not similar to the product produced in Mexico.
Exporters JFE Steel, Kobe Steel and Nippon Steel argued a “large part” of the sheet plate exported to Mexico do not compete with the steel produced by AHMSA, since “they are not similar products.”