China has pushed back after the US boosted anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on some of its steel products, saying mills in the world’s biggest economy lack competitiveness because they are overprotected.
Protectionism in the US steel sector is deeply worrying as these measures will only exacerbate friction without helping to solve the problem of shrinking global demand, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement yesterday.
“China believes that the lack of competitiveness in the US steel industry is the result of overprotection,” it said.
The world is awash with steel as demand drops in China, which accounts for about half of global production. To offset declining consumption, overcapacity and weakening prices at home, Chinese mills have boosted exports to record levels. That has raised trade tensions worldwide, spurring a fightback from rival producers and forcing policymakers to try to address the problem.
“China urges the US to abide by the World Trade Organization’s rules and to use trade remedy measures judiciously,” the ministry said after the US ruling from the International Trade Commission (ITC).
The US has been “materially injured” by imports of the cold-rolled steel flat products from China, as well as Japan, which have been determined to be sold at less than fair value and subsidized, the commission said in a statement on Wednesday. All six of the ITC’s commissioners backed the move, it said.
China’s steel exports rose 6.4 percent to 46.28 million tonnes in the first five months of the year, according to Chinese data.
The nation’s failure to curb its steel output could prompt the EU to consider new trade sanctions against Beijing, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
In an EU document aimed at framing the bloc’s China policy over the next five years, the European Commission said Beijing’s pledge to cut up to 150 million tonnes of crude steel production by 2020 was insufficient and the country had to do more.
“The EU is seriously concerned about industrial over-capacity in a number of industrial sectors in China, notably steel production,” said the document, which was agreed to on Wednesday by top EU officials, including EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.
“If the problem is not properly remedied, trade defense measures may proliferate, spreading beyond steel to other sectors, such as aluminium, ceramics and wood-based products,” it said, referring to punitive tariffs to limit Chinese imports.
The policy document follows a pledge by the G7 leading industrialized nations last month to take steps after global steel production hit a record high earlier this year.
The European Commission now has seven ongoing investigations into Chinese steel imports after opening a new case into alleged subsidies for hot-rolled flat steel last month.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”