Russian steel producers, including Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Novolipetsk Steel and Severstal, have resubmitted for the third time their application to Russia's Ministry of Industry and Energy to increase the duty on coated steel imports under five HS codes, from the current five percent to 15.6 percent for a period of three years, Russian magazine Metal Supply and Sales states.
According to the applicants, the growth of volumes of cheap imported coated steel products, mainly from Kazakhstan, China and Ukraine, against the strong decrease in domestic demand may cause them to incur substantial losses, estimated at Ruble 7 billion (approx. 224 million) in 2009.
According to the data provided by the steel producers in their application, during the first four months of 2009 Russia's coated steel product output decreased to 586,000 mt compared to 872,000 mt in the same period of last year. During the last three years Russia's output of coated steel products increased from 858,000 mt in 2005 to 2.6 million mt in 2008, while annual consumption in the domestic market rose by 47 percent from 1.5 million mt in 2005 to 2.2 million mt in 2008. Against this background, in the last three years the share of imports consistently increased, while the share of Russian steelmakers in the domestic coated steel products market went down by 76 percent in the same period.
In their first application, the Russian steel producers asked the Ministry of Industry and Energy to increase the duty on coated steel imports to 33 percent, while in their second application they sought an increase to 17 percent.