The Russian Federation's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) has announced the initiation of an antidumping investigation into imports of pre-painted steel products originating from China (including Taiwan, and 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. The investigation covers the period from 2004 through 2006, and also the first nine months of 2007.
The investigation was initiated following a complaint filed by three Russian steel producers Severstal, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), which jointly accounted for 79.6 percent of overall Russian production of the subject products during the period covered by the investigation.
Based on the evidence provided by the domestic producers, MEDT has determined that in the first nine months of 2007, the dumping margin of subject products imported from China was 50.2 percent, while the dumping margin was 17.4 percent for South Korea, 28.2 percent for Belgium, 20.9 percent for Finland and 10.8 percent for Kazakhstan.
In addition, the evidence showed that imports of pre-painted steel from the countries in question to Russia increased by 46.8 percent in 2005, by 94.1 percent in 2006 and by 166.3 percent in the first nine months of 2007.
As a result of the dumping, the share of Russian producers in the domestic market for pre-painted steel decreased by 7.9 percentage points year on year in the first nine months of 2007. Meanwhile, the share of the imported products in the Russian pre-painted steel market from China, South Korea, Finland, Belgium and Kazakhstan increased by 12.6 percentage points during the same period of time.
Thus, MEDT found that the complaint provided sufficient evidence of dumping of the subject merchandise and of material injury, which was considered sufficient to initiate an antidumping investigation.
Interested parties are invited to submit their opinion and evidence on the issue within 120 calendar days following the official date of the beginning of the investigation.
Participants may request the holding of a public hearing on the issue within 60 days following the official date of the beginning of the investigation.