The Russian Federation's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT), citing technical reasons, has decided to extend by another two months until September 21, 2009 the antidumping investigation into imports of pre-painted steel products originating from China (including Taiwan and the special administrative districts of Hong Kong and Macau), Republic of Korea, Belgium, Finland and Kazakhstan.
The subjects of the investigation include pre-painted cold rolled steel and pre-painted galvanized steel with no restrictions according to merchandise width and thickness.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the investigation was initiated on March 21, 2008, following a complaint filed by three Russian pre-painted steel producers, namely, Severstal, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), and was prolonged by another four months until July 21, 2009.
According to the applicants, in the first nine months of 2007 the dumping margin of pre-painted steel product sales from China amounted to 50.2 percent, while the margin amounted to 17.4 percent for South Korea, to 20.9 percent for Finland, to 28.2 percent for Belgium, and to 10.8 percent for Kazakhstan. Imports of pre-painted steel products from the countries in question increased in 2005 by 46.8 percent year on year, in 2006 by 94.1 percent, and in the first nine months of 2007 by 166.3 percent.