The European Commission has introduced registration of imports of certain hot-rolled flat products of iron, plain and other alloy steel from Egypt, India, Japan and Vietnam, according to a document published in the Official Journal of the EU on October 25.
The move is intended to protect against dumped imports and was linked to an anti-dumping investigation into these products launched in August following a June complaint by the European Steel Association (Eurofer) on behalf of its members, who accounted for more than 25% of total EU production of these products.
The statement said that imports of eligible products must be registered to ensure that if the results of an ongoing anti-dumping investigation result in the imposition of anti-dumping duties, those duties can be imposed retroactively.
“The conditions for retroactive levy of duties will be assessed in the order imposing final duties, if any,” the EC document said.
The statement said that registration will also be useful in the event that any investigation arises -or future liability.
The European Commission said that for imports of products throughout 2023, the allegations contained in the complaint requesting the initiation of an anti-dumping investigation estimate a dumping margin of 30-40% for Egypt, 10 -20% for Japan, about 10% for India and 5–15% for Vietnam, and the average damage recovery rate is 26%, 29.3%, 27.3% and 34.7% respectively.
She added that the amount of possible future liability would normally be set at the lower of these two levels.
The European Commission said that if the investigation found evidence of misstatements in commodities, the amount of possible future liability would be set at dumping margin if it concludes that a duty below the dumping margin would be insufficient to remedy the harm caused to the EU industry.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed domestic prices for hot-rolled steel coils in Northern Europe at 565 euros/t ex works in the Ruhr region on October 24, which is 18% lower than at the beginning of 2024.
