The Mexican government reported that it concluded the first sunset review of imports of circular, square and rectangular welded carbon steel pipe imported from China and determined to maintain unchanged the compensatory duties (CVD) that range from $356/mt to $618/mt until March 2028. In addition, they will also have to pay a provisional tariff of 25 percent.
“The validity of the definitive compensatory quotas referred to in point 1 of this Resolution is extended for five more years, starting on March 9, 2023,” published the Ministry of Economy in the official gazette of the Mexican government (DOF).
Point 1 of the resolution details four CVD amounts. For the Chinese company Huludao City Steel Pipe Industrial the fee is $356/mt; For imports from the Tianjin Huilitong Steel Tube company, the quota is $506/mt.
For the pipes manufactured by Tianjin United Steel Pipe the CVD is $537/mt and $618/mt for the companies Tangshan Zhengyuan Pipeline, Tianjin Youfa Dezhong Steel Pipe, Tianjin Youfa Steel Pipe Group and the rest of the exporters in China.
The product enters Mexico through tariff items 7306.19.99, 7306.30.03, 7306.30.04, 7306.30.99 and 7306.61.01 of the Tariff of the Law of General Import and Export Taxes (TIGIE).
The applicants to maintain the compensatory quotas were three companies that concentrate 61 percent of production: Forza SPL, Pytco and Tubería Laguna. Other producers are Productos Laminates de Monterrey (Prolamsa), Specialized Steel Products (Peasa), Ternium, Arco Metal, Maquilacero (ABX Group), Tubacero and Piperías Procarsa.
Pipe from China increased its share of Mexico's imports from 2.0 percent in 2018 to 6.0 percent in 2022.
In a series of measures to avoid accusations from the United States to Mexico about the triangulation of steel from China to the American Union, the Mexican government decreed in August 2023 the payment of a temporary tariff of 25 percent on steel imports from countries with which there is no free trade agreement.
The Ministry of Economy said that the product in question must also pay this additional tariff.