It has been a year for the steel industry, and we are still in March! Following last week’s announcement of the biggest ever tariff review on steel (read more here), ITAC is back with another initiation.
On 20 March, ITAC initiated an antidumping investigation on flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel classifiable under tariff subheadings 7210.61.20 and 7210.61.30, and on flat-rolled products of other alloy steel classifiable under tariff subheadings 7225.92.25 and 7225.92.35 from China. These are the same products covered by the safeguard investigation initiated earlier this year (read more here)
The applicant was brought by ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd (Amsa) and Safal Steel (Safal). According to the application, thin gauge corrosion-resistant steel coil is being dumped in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), causing material injury to the SACU market.
Amsa and Safal have requested anti-dumping duties of 52.61% on imports out of China. If no one responds, then these are the duties which will be imposed. These anti-dumping duties will be on top of the 10% customs duties on the selected tariff codes. It is not clear how these will be treated in light of the safeguard investigtation on the same products.
If you are an importer of these products, can you afford to pay almost 53% more for your imports? This should be enough to convince you to respond!!