The European Commission (EC) imposed a provisional antidumping (AD) duty on imports of certain hot-rolled (HRC) flat products of iron, non-alloy, or other alloy steel originating in Turkey. The new regulations were published in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU) on January 7, 2021, and will enter into force the next day.
The duty rates were calculated at 4.8pc for Habas, 5.4pc for the Erdemir Group, 5.9pc for Agir Haddecilik and Borcelik, and 7.6pc for Colakoglu Metalurji and all other companies.
The duties imposed on products, originating in Turkey, currently fall under CN codes 7208 10 00, 7208 25 00, 7208 26 00, 7208 27 00, 7208 36 00, 7208 37 00, 7208 38 00, 7208 39 00, 7208 40 00, 7208 52 10, 7208 52 99, 7208 53 00, 7208 54 00, 7211 13 00, 7211 14 00, 7211 19 00, ex 7225 19 10, 7225 30 90, ex 7225 40 60, 7225 40 90, ex 7226 19 10, 7226 91 91 and 7226 91 99, according to the document received by Davis Index.
On May 14, 2020, the EC initiated an AD investigation on Turkish HRC imports, following a complaint lodged on March 31, 2020, by Eurofer on behalf of European producers representing more than 25pc of the total EU production of the product under investigation. The complaint contained evidence of dumping and resulting material injury that was sufficient to justify the initiation of the investigation. On June 12, 2020, the EC initiated an anti-subsidy investigation on imports of the same product originating in Turkey and commenced a separate investigation.
The EC established that imports from Turkey increased from 1mn mt in 2016, representing a market share of 2.8pc to 2.843mn mt during the investigation period (January-December 2019), representing a market share of 8.1pc. These imports were made at prices lower than those of the EU industry throughout the period considered.
This strongly impacted the EU industry where, against a backdrop of increasing costs and against the price pressure exerted by the Turkish dumped imports domestic producers had to decrease their sales prices, resulting in a decline from 6.8pc profitability to 6pc losses, and the consequent deterioration of its financial indicators.