Stainless steel products are seen at a factory in Shanghai. The EU is planning to apply tariffs of up to 25.2% for imports cold-rolled stainless steel sheet from China.

Reuters/Brussels


The European Union will impose anti-dumping duties from today on imports of cold-rolled stainless steel sheet from China and Taiwan, according to a notice yesterday in the EU’s Official Journal.
The EU will apply tariffs of up to 25.2% for imports from China and up to 12% for Taiwanese product, following a complaint lodged in May 2014 by the European steel producers association, Eurofer.
Eurofer has said China and Taiwan shipped €620mn ($677.7mn) of cold-rolled stainless steel into the EU in 2013, some 17% of the overall market, and were guilty of dumping, or selling at unfairly low prices.
Imports from the two countries more than tripled from 2010 to 2014, Eurofer said, because of overcapacity there rather than market growth in Europe.
The duties, set by the European Commission, are provisional pending the outcome of an investigation due to end in September.
They are in line with those predicted by Reuters earlier this month.
Shares in European stainless steel makers rose, Outokumpu’s by 1.6% and Aperam’s by 3.9%, bringing their gains since the Reuters report to at least 25%. Acerinox shares were 2.1% stronger.
Seth Rosenfeld, analyst at Jefferies, said the tariffs would probably not end imports from China, but were high enough to have a considerable impact in the coming months.
He estimates that planned closures should push capacity utilisation rates to over 80% in 2017 from 64% in 2014, with a further boost from reduced imports.
“As imports fall you should see an effect both on market share and in terms of reduced pricing pressure, as the Chinese historically undercut Euro producers. Base prices should improve as a result,” he said.
Eurofer, welcoming the duties, said they would not limit competition, with an abundance of supply from other non-EU countries.
The import tariff has been set at 24.3% for China’s Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Co and Tianjin TISCO & TPCO Stainless Steel Co, 24.5% for other co-operating companies and at 25.2% for China’s Baosteel Stainless Steel Co, Ningbo Baoxin Stainless Steel Co and other Chinese companies.
For Taiwanese manufacturers, the rates are 10.9% for Tang Eng Iron Works Co, Yieh United Steel Corp (Yusco) and cooperating companies and at 12% for Chia Far Industrial Factory Co and other companies that did not cooperate with the EU investigation.  A parallel EU investigation into alleged illegal subsidies for Chinese producers is also due to end in September.