Chinese and Korean steel faces Taiwanese anti-dumping duties

The Taiwanese Ministry of Finance said on 5 March that it would levy stiff anti-dumping duties on selected cold-rolled stainless steel products from China and South Korea, citing damage to the local steel sector.

Duties ranging from 20.18% to 38.11% are to be slapped on such products for a five-year period, which would be retroactive to 15 August last year and carry through 14 August 2018, ministry officials said in a statement.

The ministry’s decision to impose the punitive duties came in response to a complaint filed by Taiwan’s Yieh United Steel Corporation and Tang Eng Iron Works Corp.

In August last year, the ministry decided to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on the products from China and South Korea, after initial investigations found they were sold unfairly in Taiwan’s market and harmed local manufacturers.

After that, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Commission (ITC) conducted further investigations which concluded that the cheap imports had undercut the competition in Taiwan.

Data offered by the ITC showed that Chinese and South Korean exporters had increased their market share from 4.9% in 2009 to 15.3% in 2012 among the total imports of these products, while the market share of Taiwanese steel companies dropped to 78.3% in 2012, from 87.2% in 2009.

Source: Taipei Times