KARACHI: The National Tariff Commission (NTC) started an antidumping probe into the imports of steel coils from China, almost a year after it slapped duties on Chinese cold rolled coils on the same ground.
The commission, in a notice issued recently, said the International Steels Limited (ISL) – the sole producer of galvanised coils in Pakistan – complained that Chinese companies were dumping galvanised and colour coated steel coils into Pakistan at below market prices, causing material injury to the local manufacturer.
ISL said price under-cutting led to a decline in sales and profitability in addition to the inventory buildup. The NTC said it will complete the investigation and make final determination within four months.
Equity analyst Adnan Sheikh at Taurus Securities said the antidumping duty will be in the range of eight to 19 percent, much like those provisionally imposed on cold rolled coils from China, the world’s biggest steel producer accounting for nearly half of the global supplies.
In January, the NTC slapped 8.31 to 19.04 percent duties on imports of cold-rolled coils and sheets from exporters based in China and Ukraine after a preliminary finding that they dumped two products between April 2014 and March 2015 into the country.
“However, the dumping margin on galvanised products calculated by NTC is higher,” Sheikh said, hinting at a likelihood of increased levies. The commission calculated up to 46.89 percent dumping margins (landed versus normal price) of some Chinese producers.
Any duty, the analyst said, is likely to benefit the local industry as a whole. Especially, local steel mills, which are weighing expansion, will be encouraged to speed up the planned capacity boost.
Recently, Aisha Steel Mills Limited unveiled its plan to install a galvanising plant with a production capacity of 250,000 tons per annum. Taurus Securities, in a report, said some developed economies have already slapped as much as 266 percent anti-dumping duties on cheap Chinese steel products
Recently, the US government warned that it would impose 500 percent duties on Chinese cold-rolled steel. The price-sapping glut may force Chinese government to mute its 100 to 150 tons of steel production capacity in the next five years – a modicum of its total 1.13 billion tons.
Pakistan’s steel demand hovers around eight million tons as against the production of five to six million tons. Imports meet the demand and supply shortfall.
The infrastructure developments, led by $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects, are boosting local per capita steel consumption, which is, currently one of the lowest in the world. Currently, between 500 and 700 steel mills, including furnaces and rolling mills are operating in the country.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/162379-NTC-starts-anti-dumping-probe-into-Chinese-steel-coils
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