Minews - EU May Be Asked to Probe Chinese Exports of Steel Rebar

(Minews) - European Union steel industry group Eurofer may ask the EU to impose tariffs on Chinese reinforcement bar because of alleged unfair pricing, threatening to heighten steel-trade tensions between Europe and China.

Eurofer is “absolutely determined to act” over China allegedly selling rebar in the 28-nation EU below cost, a practice known as dumping, Karl Tachelet, Eurofer’s director of international affairs, told reporters in Brussels today.

Nearly all of Europe’s imports of rebar -- steel bars used in reinforced concrete -- go to the U.K., with shipments from China reaching a market share of 20 percent in 2014, up from nothing in 2012, and hitting a peak of 36 percent in the second quarter of this year, Eurofer said.

The industry group may decide in the first quarter of 2015 whether to file a dumping complaint to the European Commission or what alternative action to take, Tachelet said. The commission is the EU’s trade authority.

“For the commission to act, there are a lot of elements we need to check before they can accept a file or case or investigation,” he said. “So we always have to be prudent and very well prepared, but it is a priority.”

Eurofer, which succeeded in getting the commission to open a probe this year into alleged dumping in the EU of stainless steel cold-rolled flat products from China and Taiwan, says that Europe’s steel industry is losing market share to suppliers from outside the continent. While finished steel imports have risen by 22 percent in the first three quarters of 2014, domestic deliveries have increased by about 1.5 percent, according to the group.