Posted on 29 Dec 2014
The Vietnam Competition Authority has announced that Turkey's Ministry of Economy is investigating steel products imported from Malaysia and Vietnam.
The investigation will examine potential violations of antidumping rules, following a complaint by M/s Jindal Stainless Limited. Some Chinese and Taiwanese exporters have allegedly shipped products to transit through Malaysia and Vietnam before re-exporting to Turkey, evading antidumping taxes on cold rolled steel implemented by Turkey in March 2013.
Turkey, which had a trade deficit of close to US$1.1 billion with Vietnam in 2012, has seen crude steel production fall 8.6 percent year-on-year since November 2013. The period of 1 January 2013 to 31 October 2014 will be reviewed by the Ministry.
Chinese steel exports are projected to surpass 80 million tons in 2014, the highest level to date. China accounts for approximately half of global steel production. The flood of Chinese steel exports are expected by Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. MD Kiyoshi Imamura to reach 100 million tons in 2015, close to the entire production level of the world's second-largest steel producer Japan. Imamura attributed the decline in prices to this export surge, and said it caused his company to cut prices per ton by 3,000 yen (US$26) in November 2014.
Turkey is not the only one suspicious of imports from China and Taiwan; the European Union has ordered its customs officials to register imports of stainless steel from the two jurisdictions, amid allegations that companies have dumped products at below cost prices. Taiwanese companies have already suffered as a result: profits at Taiwan's largest steelmaker China Steel Corp. declined 71 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
It is not all bad news for the steel industry though, at least for the exchanges; the London Metals Exchange (LME) has seen trading volume increase by four percent over 2014. LME now handles over US$15 trillion annually.
