October 07, 2008

EUROFER welcomes AD investigations on wire rods

The European Commission said that it opened anti dumping proceedings against imports of wire rod from China, Turkey and Moldova as was requested by EUROFER, the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries on March 25.

Mr Gordon Moffat director general of EUROFER said that “We welcome the news that the preliminary analysis of the European Commission confirms that there is sufficient evidence both in terms of dumping and injury caused to the European industry to justify the initiation of a proceeding.”

Mr Moffat said that similar to other steel products, notably hot dipped metallic coated products and stainless cold rolled flat products currently subject to anti dumping investigations, the main cause of the massive flood of wire rod imports into the EU market witnessed in 2007 is the excessive capacity development in the exporting countries concerned, fuelled by subsidization and the fragmentation of the local industry.

Mr Moffat added that EUROFER is actively monitoring the situation for other steel products and recalls that both the HDMC and SSCR complaints enjoy the support of European producers representing a vast majority of European production. The assertions from some Chinese sources that only a single European producer supports the SSCR case are therefore utterly false, said Moffat who added that the same Chinese sources have also alleged that the injury on the EU market was mainly self-inflicted by a European company's own exports of SSCR to Europe by its Chinese affiliate. Moffat states that these allegations are misleading and this specific issue was addressed in detail in the EUROFER complaint fully documented and subject to careful analysis by the European Commission prior to the official opening of the AD investigations.