Pakistan’s National Tariff Commission (NTC) has imposed an anti-dumping duty on colour coated steel imports coming from China and South Africa. These are the flat-rolled products (painted, varnished or coated with plastics) of iron or non-alloy steel of width 600 mm or more and are classified under the HS code 7210 with subheadings 7210.7010, 7210.7020, 7210.7090, 7212.4010 and 7212.4090.
The duties imposed are said to be in the range of 5.36% to 14.24%. The NTC has imposed the definitive anti-dumping duties at the rates mentioned below on C&F value in ad valorem terms for a period of five years with effect from 13 June 2018.
The details of the anti-dumping duty investigation
The anti-dumping duty investigation on the colour coated products was initiated by Pakistan in Jun’17 following the application filed in Apr’17 by Pakistan’s one of the largest flat steel producers, International Steels Limited.
In Dec’17 the Pakistani National Tariff Commission concluded the preliminary determination of the above investigation. However, thereafter the investigation continued without the imposition of provisional duties.
According to NTC, during the investigations, 14 exporters of investigated product from China provided information in response to the questionnaire, while no producers from South Africa provided information.
The Commission has concluded that there was a significant increase in the volume of dumped imports of the investigated product and significant price undercutting in the domestic market. As a result, the domestic industry suffered material injury on account of low level of production, low level of capacity utilisation, decline in market share and negative effect on inventories and growth.
Anti-dumping duty on colour coated steel will help Pakistan’s GC segment
Along with helping Pakistan’s domestic colour coated segment, the industry experts believe that these trade restrictions can potentially help in the addressing the pressure on GC (Galvanised coil) sheets segment which was marred by declining CRC and GC spreads from the historical average of USD 80/MT to USD 20/MT in the local market.
The additional advantage of this anti-dumping duty is that it will help country’s domestic GC producers to increase their falling production and dwindling market share as the commercial importers in Pakistan used to import GC by counterfeiting it as colour coated steel because GC imports in Pakistan are already subject to heavy anti-dumping duties since 2017.
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