With all the recent press coverage of ArcelorMittal, you would be forgiven for thinking that SA is the only country struggling with cheap steel imports. You would be wrong. The USA has been pushing up duties on steel for a while now (mainly in the form of anti-dumping and countervailing duties). Yesterday the US ITC (the American version of ITAC. Sort of.) voted to continue anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on cold rolled steel flat products, from Brazil, China, India, Korea, Russia and the UK. Of particular concern to the US are products from Brazil, China, India, Korea and Russia, who they say are subsidising their steel sector. These are the countries covered by the countervailing investigation, in addition to the anti-dumping case.

If these big markets keep closing to steel, where does the steel go?

According to ArcelorMittal its arriving in SA, literally by the boatload and this actually makes sense. As the barriers are erected in other markets, so the pressure will be felt on markets that are open. The question to be answered though, is whether this is a good or a bad thing. Does cheap steel make for a competitive downstream industry?