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Company accuses its rival of dumping steel
Industrial Correspondent
SA's largest steel maker, Iscor, has won the first round in its petition against cheap imports of colour-coated steel from Australia, with government announcing at the weekend that it would impose punitive duties on BHP Steel.
The 79% duty on two types of colourcoated steel from the Australian company is provisional, pending the completion of a full investigation into the alleged dumping of the products. The high value of the provisional duty points strongly towards this.
"The commission's decision to implement a provisional antidumping duty, of this magnitude, indicates that there is strong evidence to suggest dumping activities may have taken place on the part of the Australian steel producer," said Iscor spokesman Phaldie Kalam.
The high punitive duty was likely to make it unprofitable for the Australian steel producer to continue exports of these products to SA. This augured well for Iscor, which is the only domestic producer of colour-coated steel sheet, used in the manufacture of roof tiles among other things. Iscor welcomed the move at the weekend.
Meanwhile, the steel maker's clients would be far less impressed with the move as they were likely to have benefited from cheaper prices offered by the Australian company.
Iscor sells about 76000 tons of colour-coated steel a year in SA and abroad. Colour-coated steel is a specialised product and accounts for a small portion of the company's sales in volumes. However, the steel is one of the company's highest value-added products. The domestic steel maker claimed it was suffering "material injury" as a result of the cheap imports from Australia.
BHP Steel, which is changing its name to BlueScope Steel this month, was part of the BHP group before BHP and Billiton merged. The Australian Stock Exchangelisted company claims to be one of the largest manufacturers of coated and painted steel products in the world.
The International Trade Administration Commission, whose mandate it is to protect domestic companies against unfair trade, would have to prove BHP Steel had been selling its products in SA at a lower price that in its home market in order for Iscor's petition to succeed.
It would also have to prove that Iscor had suffered material injury as a result of the imports.
The commission was not available for comment on the date for completion of the investigation, which commenced in October. "We are confident that there is merit to the provisional antidumping duty, which is indicative of uncompetitive trading activities by the Australian steel producer," said Iscor.
Steel is the subject of the most prolific antidumping action worldwide. Several antidumping duties are in place in SA against other countries, including Russia and Ukraine.
Antidumping duties are also in place against domestic steel makers in other countries abroad. Earlier this year Iscor successfully defended its pricing on cold rolled products exported to Canada.
Oct 13 2003 07:47:37:000AM Carli Lourens Business Day 1st Edition
Monday
13 October 2003
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