On February 11, Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade announced the initiation of an antidumping (AD) investigation into imports of pre-painted steel products originating from China to the territory of customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The investigation has been started upon the request of such major Russian steel producers as Severstal, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), which in 2007-2009 as well as in H1 2010 produced on average 85 percent of the total pre-painted steel product output in the customs union.
The products subject to the investigation included pre-painted cold rolled steel and pre-painted galvanized steel of more than 0.2 mm thickness, but not exceeding 2 mm, and of more than 50 mm width under the following HS Codes: 7210 70 800 0, 7210 90 300 0, 7210 90 800 0, 7212 40 800 0, 7212 60 000 0 and 7225 99 000 0.
In H1 2010, the import of pre-painted steel products to the territory of the customs union increased to 237,400 mt from 23,900 mt in H1 2009. The share of China's pre-painted steel imports in the overall volume of the customs union's imports of these products increased to 66.9 percent in H1 2010 from 39.6 percent in H1 2008 and from 24.9 percent in 2009.
The new AD investigation into imports of pre-painted steel products is the second attempt of Russian steel producers to defend their market. As SteelOrbis previously reported, in late August 2009 the Russian Federation's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade terminated its AD investigation into imports of pre-painted steel products originating from China (including Taiwan and the special administrative districts of Hong Kong and Macau), South Korea, Belgium, Finland and Kazakhstan, concluding that there were no grounds for imposing AD duties.