The Russian Federation's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) has recommenced investigations into imports of steel rebar from Ukraine upon the complaint received from the domestic producers ZapSib, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, Severstal and MMK. The period of review is from 2003 to 2006.
In the filed complaint, the above-mentioned producers argued that Ukrainian rebar exports caused damages to the Russian domestic producers due to the existing subsidies received by the Ukrainian steel producers in terms of discounts for electricity used by the steel plants and also under the Ukrainian national program aiming for the development and modernization of the country's metallurgical industry up to 2011, which provides favorable terms for Ukrainian steelmakers to increase their production. In addition, the Russian side claims that during the period in question, the sales of the Russian rebar producers decreased by five percent while the sales of the Ukrainian rebar exporters increased in the Russian domestic market by 2.7 percent. Moreover, they complain that even during the period of effective duties on imports of steel rebar from Ukraine, the imports increased12.8-fold (from 18,700 metric tons in 2003 to 238,500 metric tons in 2006). Thus, according to the complaint, the revocation of the existing duties would cause Russian domestic rebar producers to suffer considerable damages.
Therefore, based on the evidence provided, the MEDT decided to recommence investigations into the imports of Ukrainian rebar.
The interested parties may request a conduct of the open hearing within 60 days from the official date of the beginning of investigations (April 12, 2007).