By Reuters,   Fowarded from chinafastener.com

According to two sources familiar with a European Commission proposal, the European Union will impose anti dumping duties later this month on imports of stainless steel cold rolled sheet from China and Taiwan.
 
The EC plans to set tariffs of about 25% for imports from China and of about 12% for Taiwanese product, following a complaint lodged in May 2014 by the European steel producers association, Eurofer.
 
The EC will present its proposal to EU member states next week and by March 26 will put in place the duties, which are provisional pending the outcome of an investigation due to end in September.
 
Eurofer said that China and Taiwan shipped EUR 620 million worth of cold rolled stainless steel into the EU in 2013, some 17% of the overall market, and were guilty of dumping, or selling at unfairly low prices. A parallel investigation into alleged illegal subsidies for Chinese producers is also due to end in September.
 
Europe's largest stainless steel producers are Acerinox, Outokumpu and Aperam. Chinese and Taiwanese producers include Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Company, Baosteel and Yusco.
 
The EC, prompted by Eurofer, is also investigating alleged dumping of grain-oriented flat-rolled electrical steel, typically used in transformers, by producers in China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the US.
 
Eurofer is also seeking to prolong existing duties on Chinese imports of wire rod. Despite a lower euro and a slow pick up of European demand, European producers were still confronted with a massive increase of imports from Asia, and from China in particular.
 
Eurofer said that total Chinese steel exports rose to a historic peak of 93 million tonnes in 2014 equivalent to 60 per cent of total EU steel consumption. Chinese steel exports to the EU increased to 4.5 million tonnes last year from 1.2 million tonnes in 2009.
 
Eurofer believed the large expansion of China's steel industry does not reflect cost advantages but is based on state-owned enterprises raising capital on preferential terms, as well as other forms of subsidy. China's exports include not just basic products, such as hot rolled steel but also high end coated sheets.