News Room - Steel Industry

The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, has issued a financial ruling to lower anti-dumping duties against Taiwan's stainless steel cold-rolled flat product (SSCR) exporters, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

Citing the Official Journal of European Union dated Aug. 27, the MOEA said the European Commission has lowered anti-dumping tariffs against Taiwan's SSCR exporters to a range between zero and 6.8 percent from a preliminary ruling in March which set the tariff range at 10.9 percent to 12 percent.

According to the final EU decision, Taiwan's Chia Fa Industrial Factory Co. (嘉發) has been freed of such a financial burden, witnessing the complete removal of the anti-dumping tariff from an earlier 12 percent.

The anti-dumping financial penalty for Tang Eng Iron Works Co. (唐榮) and Yieh United Steel Corp. (燁聯) has been cut to 6.8 percent from 10.9 percent, while other Taiwanese firms also benefited from a tariff cut to 6.8 percent from 12 percent, the final ruling showed.

In the same decision, however, the EU has raised anti-dumping tariffs against Chinese SSCR exporters by 0.1 percentage points from the March ruling to range between 24.4 percent and 25.3 percent.

In May 2014, the European Steel Association (EUROFER) filed a complaint with the EU, accusing Taiwanese and Chinese SSCR exporters of selling their products at unfairly low prices in the EU market. Since then, the European Commission launched an investigation into the accusation, and came up with preliminary and financial decisions.

The MOEA said that it has been delighted to see the financial burden shouldered by Taiwanese SSCR exporters reduced as the EU has been the largest buyer of Taiwanese SSCR products in the world.

In 2014, Taiwan's SSCR exports to the EU market totaled US$611 million, up 38.57 percent from a year earlier. The EU's consumption accounted for 32.13 percent of Taiwan's total SSCR exports last year. In 2013, Taiwan's SSCR exports to the EU rose 20.82 percent from a year earlier.

The EU launched an investigation into the EUROFER's allegations involving Taiwan's SSCR exports in 2013, when Taiwan sold 169,000 metric tons of SSCR products to the EU, higher than China's 143,000 metric tons and South Korea's 92,000 metric tons, the MOEA said.

In 2013, Taiwan took a 5.1 percent share of the SSCR market in the EU, serving as the largest supplier to the European bloc, the MOEA added.