News Room - Steel Industry

The government is expected to decide on the 'safeguard' petition on Dec 8, 2015, which will see an additional 40 per cent import tax on the existing 15 per cent for the imported hot rolled coil (HRC) products, said Mycron Steel Bhd.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Azlan Abdullah, hoped the government would not approve the petition as it would 'kill' the industry.

"If implemented, importers have to pay 55 per cent import duty, which is ridiculously high.

"It is hoped the government's decision will be fair to the industry as a whole and more importantly to ensure its survival rather than just look at one party (Megasteel Sdn Bhd)," he said.

Azlan said this to reporters after the company's annual general meetings here today.

The safeguard petition was filed by Megasteel in August. Following this, the government issued a gazette on Sept 10 for the notice of initiation of investigation for the determination of safeguard measure with regard to HRC products imported into Malaysia.

Azlan said Megasteel, the country's largest HRC producer, sought to prevent the import of all grades of HRC -- scrap-based and iron ore-based HRC, by asking for higher import duties.

As there is no domestic manufacturer of iron ore-based HRC, there is no point in setting high import duties for such materials, which if implemented, would backfire and damage Malaysia's competitiveness, he said.

It has been reported that Megasteel's parent company, Lion Corp Bhd, had said the February 2015 imposition of anti-dumping duties on imported HRC from China and Indonesia for five years had initially driven up demand for local HRC.

It said the low anti-dumping duty rates were, however, unable to effectively deter cheap imports, which had led to deterioration of demand for local HRC products towards the end of the financial year compounded by the weakening market sentiments.