Posted on 12 Feb 2013
Indonesia will likely extend the anti-dumping duties imposed on five countries for imported hot rolled coil believing that the commodity is still being sold here at unfair prices.
The Indonesian Anti-Dumping Committee (KADI) recommended the Trade Ministry keep the duties in place to deter imports of hot rolled coil from China, India, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand.
KADI chairman Bachrul Chairi said the commodity is being sold in Indonesia at prices below production costs or lower-than-home-market prices.
“We’ve concluded that the product [from the five countries] is still being dumped on the local market and if we lift the duty, it will hurt our industry,” Bachrul said in Jakarta on Thursday.
KADI issued the recommendation following a five-year review, which the five countries in question did not cooperative with. Thus, KADI’s conclusion had to be produced based on the available information, he said.
Indonesia first imposed anti-dumping duties on hot rolled coil on March 1, 2008, after realizing that the influx of the imported product had severely disadvantaged the local industry.
The percentage of duties affect 17 firms from the five countries at different levels: three Chinese firms (from 25.18 to 42.58 percent), three Indian firms (from 12.95 to 56.51 percent), four Russian firms (from 5.58 to 49.47 percent), three Taiwanese firms (from 4.24 to 37.02 percent) and four Thai firms (from 7.52 to 27.44 percent).
The duties are due to expire on March 1 this year, and KADI has assessed the duties based on a request from Indonesia’s biggest steel producer, state-owned firm Krakatau Steel, which served as the petitioner representing the local industry since April 4, 2012.
Indonesia, like many other countries that joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), has imposed anti-dumping duties on products sold in the local market at prices deemed lower than fair value.
Bachrul said that the import duties would also be expanded to include an additional three foreign firms, which based on analysis sold hot rolled coil at an unfair value.
Various steel products have been subject to trade disputes between Indonesia and other countries.
Indonesian hot rolled carbon steel plates, for example, were smacked with an anti-dumping duty and anti-subsidy in Canada in the mid 1990s, but the measures were lifted in 2000 after they expired and the authorities stated that unfair practice had ceased.
In a recent move, the anti-dumping committee also recommended the Trade Ministry and Finance Ministry impose up to 74 percent anti-dumping duties on imported cold rolled coil to protect the local industry from unfair trade practices.
Based on its inquiry, the committee found strong evidence to support the allegation that imported cold rolled coil and sheet are dumped onto the local market, causing injury to the petitioner, Krakatau Steel.
The proposed anti-dumping duties may affect imports from five countries — China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.
