Posted on 16 Dec 2015
"Their views are not an accurate reflection of the needs of the steel industry," Megasteel said in a statement yesterday.
On a longer term basis, Megasteel said, cheap imports from China are not sustainable because the Chinese mills are reported to be suffering huge losses due to them selling at very low dumping prices.
Megasteel added that when the Chinese steel market recovers, their exports will dry up and this will lead to a shortage or non-availability of steel supply locally.
This it said, is because the local iron and steel industry would have "already wiped out as they were not allowed to survive during this crisis".
Megasteel stated that it is not the only steel company that is affected by the excessive steel imports and submitting trade remedy petitions .
"As the entire steel industry is affected, there has been a spate of petitions submitted by the local steel industry players for protection since 2013," it said.
Megasteel said it was also aware that there is a petition expected to be submitted to the Malaysian government for protection against the imports of galvanised steel sheets.
"Will Misif similarly object to this future petition as vigorously as they are objecting to the current safeguard petition submitted by Megasteel? We also do not hear much objections from Misif on the other petitions except for the petition submitted by Megasteel," it asked.
The steel maker foresees that such petitions will not cease until the global steel markets have stabilised.
"In the interim period, the local steel producers need to be shielded in some form. Otherwise, the closure of steel mills will cause loss of jobs and irreparable future damage to the manufacturing competitiveness of Malaysian downstream manufacturers," it said.
Megasteel said, it and and local upstream producers, all share the same objective to protect the long-term, sustainable development and interests of the Malaysian iron and steel industry.
