China's government may consider setting anti-dumping measures on stainless-steel imports if prices drop in the world's biggest market for the metal, according to China's largest steel trader.
Imports made up about two-thirds of total stainless steel demand in the world's most populous country last year. New capacity from Chinese companies and foreign joint-ventures mean that domestic production should equal consumption by 2007, according to Minmetals Steel Co, a unit of state-owned China Minmetals Corp.
"China's increased domestic cold-rolled capacity will meet domestic needs to a large extent in the future," said Wang Ping, general manager of the special steel department at Beijing-based Minmetals, speaking at IBC Asia's Asian Stainless Outlook conference in Hanoi.
"Anti-dumping measures will be very quickly taken against the possible low selling price of foreign stainless-steel products," Wang said.
Minmetals says it bought about one-third of all Chinese steel imports last year.
Taiwan and "especially India" are possible targets should a case eventually be filed, Wang said. Last year, India was the source of 9 percent of China's stainless-steel imports, up from 1 percent in 2001, according to figures provided by Minmetals.
At current steel prices, the filing of an anti-dumping case is unlikely, Wang said. Steel prices now are at the highest in more than a decade.
"At this moment, the market is strong, and they will not take any actions," Wang said. "But when the market goes down, there may be some measures to protect Chinese domestic producers."
Any anti-dumping case, which would cite the names of individual mills, would require a one-year investigation, he said.
In January, China imposed anti-dumping duties on cold-rolled steel imports from Kazakhstan, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan and Ukraine, after domestic makers complained that overseas rivals were selling below cost. The measures did not cover stainless steel imports.
Anti-dumping duties already apply to cold-rolled stainless steel imports from Japan and South Korea. The duties, which were set in 2000, are scheduled to expire next year.
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