EEF Manufacturers' Organisation : UK Steel slams EU dumping decision on Chinese imports

Commenting on the decision by the EU to impose low level duties on the imports of Chinese rebar Gareth Stace, Director of UK Steel, said:

'The Commission's decision to publish provisional duties at this very low level, clearly shows that the scale of the crisis affecting the European steel sector has not yet fully registered with Brussels Bureaucrats. Basing the provisional duties on a so called 'reasonable profit level' of 1.65% is a slap in the face for UK manufacturers of rebar, which has seen China taking more than 45% of the UK market from zero in as little as four years.

'The Commission's highly thorough investigation of Chinese exports has highlighted dumping margins in excess of a whopping 60%, however given that the European Commission always imposes the minimum duties possible, unlike the US, then what we end up with are duties that are totally inadequate and may not have any material effect.

'If this was the US, we would have seen duties set at 66% and brought in after 45 days from the start of the investigation. Not 9% after almost a year, from a drawn out and procrastinating EU machine.

'Unless these provisional duties are increased, then we will see further job losses in the rebar sector in the future, as China shows no sign of stemming this tidal wave of rebar exports, with ever increasing tonnage reaching our shores.'