China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, yesterday announced that it was preparing to lodge anti-dumping lawsuits against Chinese and South Korean peers to safeguard its interests.
This would be the first anti-dumping lawsuit filed by local steelmakers after the EU, the US and India imposed putative tariffs on steel imports from the world’s major steelmakers including those from China and Taiwan to protect their steel industry.
“China Steel is collecting information to file anti-dumping complaints at a proper time in order to prevent unfair competition from hurting local steelmakers’ interests,” China Steel spokesperson Lin Horng-nan (林弘男) said in a statement.
“Certain companies have exported massive quantities of steel products to Taiwan at rates that are lower than market prices,” the statement said.
Local steelmakers are facing a double whammy of anti-dumping duties on Taiwanese exports and unfair competition from foreign steelmakers at home market, Lin said.
The latest in a slew of anti-dumping tariffs impositions, China Steel is required to pay 2.5 percent higher tariffs on its exports to India, which could cut China Steel’s exports by US$122 million, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said this month.
China Steel is expected to file the anti-dumping complaint to the International Trade Commission by the end of next month at the latest. The company is planning to request the commission to levy anti-dumping tariffs on steel plates made by Chinese and South Korean firms, Chinese-language the Economic Daily News reported yesterday. Lin could not be reached for comment by the time the newspaper went to press.
South Korean, Chinese, Indonesian and Indian companies were dumping their steel products to Taiwan due to a surplus in supply, as Taiwan had gradually reduced tariffs on most steel products to zero after becoming a member of the WTO, the report said.
The companies sold steel plates, hot-rolled sheets and steel bars with a discount of US$160 per tonne, the report said.
China heavily subsidizes its steel industry, which has prompted the EU and the US to levy anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steelmakers due to unfair business practices, it said.
On Wednesday, China Steel reported that its revenue has dropped 26.46 percent to NT$22.63 billion (US$688.8 million) from a year earlier. In the first eight months of this year, year-on-year cumulative revenues fell 18.32 percent to NT$200.94 billion, the company said.
China Steel shares were down 0.77 percent to NT$19.3 yesterday in Taipei trading, extending this year’s loss to 26.05 percent.
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