Brazilian Chamber of Commerce Camex rejected the request of ArcelorMittal, CSN and Gerdau to re-apply anti-dumping measures against imports of hot-rolled coil from China, which expire on May 21, 2023. This is stated in a note published last week in the country's Official Gazette, Diário Oficial da União.
In 2018, Brazil introduced both AD measures and countervailing duties on Chinese HRC for up to five years.
However, they have never been used for reasons of public interest, which is a mandatory assessment in anti-dumping or subsidy investigations in Brazil since April 2019.
The Chamber of Commerce considers that in recent years of suspension of such measures, no corresponding changes have been recorded in the analysis of previous public interest assessments.
“On the contrary, there is uncertainty regarding the continuity of imports from Russia and Ukraine, alternative sources relevant to the Brazilian market, and imports from China became more important in relation to the total at the end of the analyzed period,” explains Camex. . “Thus, the possible restriction of Chinese imports through the re-imposition of the countervailing measure would create more significant downstream risks than those identified at the time of the suspension recommendation.”
The applicants' request for the re-imposition of the AD measures concerned flat products made of alloyed or non-alloyed steel with a width of at least 600 mm, hot-rolled products in sheets with a thickness of less than 4.75 mm or in coils of any thickness.
