The EU on Friday imposed tariffs ranging from 9.2 percent to 13 percent as on steel from China used to reinforce concrete, the latest sign of EU unease about overcapacity at Chinese mills.
The duties punish Chinese exporters of high fatigue performance steel concrete reinforcement bars for allegedly selling them in the EU below cost, a practice known as dumping. The targeted companies include Jiangyin Xicheng Steel Co (江陰西城鋼鐵), Jiangsu Yonggang Group Co (江蘇永鋼集團) and Zhangjiagang Shatai Steel Co (張家港沙景鋼鐵).
EU-based competitors, including the Celsa and Riva groups, suffered “material injury” as a result of dumped imports from China, the European Commission, the 28-nation bloc’s executive arm in Brussels, said in the Official Journal.
The duties, which took effect on Saturday, are for six months and may be prolonged for five years.
The anti-dumping duties are the preliminary outcome of an inquiry that the commission opened in April last year. The probe stemmed from a dumping complaint by European steel industry group Eurofer on behalf of producers that account for more than a quarter of the EU’s output of high-fatigue performance steel concrete reinforcement bars — also called HFP rebars and known for their resilience.
Chinese exporters expanded their share of the EU market for HFP rebars to almost 36 percent in the 12 months through March last year from 7.9 percent in 2013 and zero in previous years, the commission said on Friday.
With EU anti-dumping protection already in force against China on goods ranging from stainless steel and electrical steel to wire rod and steel wires, the new measures reflect European concerns that Chinese mills have the capacity to flood world markets.
China, which accounts for about half of global steel production and posted its slowest economic growth in more than two decades last year, on Sunday last week pledged steel-capacity cuts, as several steel mills are grappling with widening losses.
Medium and large-sized mills that are members of the China Iron & Steel Association swung to a total loss of 64.5 billion yuan (US$9.8 billion) last year, the group said on Friday in a statement.
“Lower output is not enough to offset the decrease in demand as the market is still oversupplied,” the statement said. “The steel sector is faced with tight cash flow and difficulty in operation as steel prices reached the lowest on record while losses at mills widened.”
Signs of corporate difficulties are mounting as at least six Chinese steel mills issued loss warnings on Friday.
Angang Steel Co (鞍鋼), China’s fourth-biggest steel mill by production, said it expects to swing to a loss of about 4.38 billion yuan for last year, compared with a net profit of 928 million yuan in 2014.
Wuhan Iron & Steel Co (武漢鋼鐵), the nation’s fifth-largest mill, expects losses for last year to reach 6.8 billion yuan, Maanshan Iron & Steel Co (馬鞍山鋼鐵) expects a net loss of 4.82 billion yuan, while Beijing Shougang Co (北京首鋼) said its losses will be at least 800 million yuan.
