Pakistan imposes Provisional Anti-dumping Duty on CRC Imports

According to the latest updates, Pakistan has imposed provisional anti-dumping duty on CRC imports from Canada and Russia for the period of four months.

Effective from 20 September 2019, a provisional antidumping duty at the rate of 13.94% ad valorem of the C&F price has been imposed on the steel products, the National Tariff commission said, after it determined that the domestic industry suffered material injury on account of significant increase in volume of dumped imports.

The products on which provisional tariffs have been imposed fall under Pakistan Customs Tariff Numbers: 72091510, 72091590, 72091610, 72091690, 72091710, 72091790, 72091810, 72091890, 72091891, 72091899, 72092510, 72092590, 72092610, 72092690, 72092710, 72092790, 72092810, 72092890 and 72112920.

The commission will make its final determination about 180 days after its preliminary findings were published, which should be about March 20, 2020. The investigation was a result of an application filed by Aisha Steel Mills and International Steels (ISL), both based in Karachi.

Pakistan has a steel production capacity of about 8.5 MnT to 9 MnT, according to data from the country’s National Steel Advisory Council.

Overall steel imports during financial year 2017-2018 were 8 MnT, of which 5.3 MnT was raw material and 2.7 MnT was finished products. Flat steel imports reached 2.22 MnT in FY 2017-2018, slightly higher from 2.21 MnT the year before.

In terms of CRC, the total consumption of cold rolled steel in Pakistan is 800,000 tons per annum and while ISL has a capacity of 500,000 tonnes, Aisha Steel has a CRC capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year and is currently ongoing expansion to increase its capacity to 500,000 tonnes.

In a bid to tackle cheap imports, the National Tariff Commission (NTC) had already imposed anti-dumping duty in June 2018 on colour-coated steel, which mostly comes from China, South Africa and Ukraine. Earlier in February 2018, it also slapped anti-dumping duty on galvanised steel coils/sheets produced by China for a period of five years.