Steel product faces EU dumping duties

The European Union will impose anti-dumping duties from Thursday on imports of a grade of electrical steel from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

It is the second set of measures this year to protect European steel producers such as Stalprodukt SA, Tata Steel Ltd and ThyssenKrupp AG.

The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, has set tariffs on imports of grain-oriented flat-rolled electrical steel following a complaint lodged in June 2014 by Eurofer, the European steel producers association.

The duties, detailed on Wednesday in the official journal of the EU, are provisional, pending the outcome of an investigation due to end in November. Normally such duties would then continue for five years.

Duties of 28.7 percent will cover imports from Chinese companies, including Baosteel Group Corp and Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp, and of 22.8 percent from South Korea producers such as Posco.

The rate for US producers, including AK Steel Holding Corp, is 22.0 percent and for Russian firms such as Novolipetsk Steel, or NLMK, 21.6 percent.

Japan's JFE Steel Corp will face duties of 34.2 percent, while Nippon Steel, Sumitomo Metal Corp and other producers from there 35.9 percent.

The figures are in line with those reported by Reuters last month. The EU transformer industry has said it is deeply concerned by the prospect of duties.

The Commission said that from early 2003 there was an unprecedented increase in demand for transformers, leading to a corresponding rise in demand and prices of GOES, but that from 2011 that market started to experience a significant drop in consumption.

Imports reached about 45 percent of the market as their average price fell by some 30 percent from 2011 to 2014. In March, the Commission imposed anti-dumping duties on imports from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan of cold-rolled flat stainless steel. Last month, it opened a probe into alleged dumping by Chinese producers of steel used to reinforce concrete in Britain and Ireland.