Levy anti-dumping duties on high-performance stainless steel seamless pipes

In Japan and the European Union v. China against anti-dumping duties on high-performance stainless steel seamless steel pipes, the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute group finally supported the claims of Japan and the European Union, ruling China's stainless steel seamless steel pipe dispute with Japan and the European Union. Lost the case. The so-called high-performance stainless steel seamless steel pipe is mainly used for superheater and reheater in supercritical boilers and ultra-supercritical boilers of power stations.

The reporter noted that China had previously pointed out that stainless steel seamless pipe producers in Japan and the EU sold goods in China at unfairly low prices. According to the announcement issued by the Ministry of Commerce of China, in accordance with the anti-dumping case of relevant high-performance stainless steel seamless steel pipes. As a result, since November 9, 2012, China has imposed an anti-dumping duty of 9.2% to 14.4% on imported products originating from the EU and Japan, with an implementation period of five years. But then Japan and the EU filed a complaint with the WTO.

Japan filed the lawsuit in December 2012, opposing China’s impediment to the sale of steel pipes for thermal power plants by companies such as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo. The EU also joined the lawsuit in 2013. The main EU exporters are TubacexS.A in Spain and SalzgitterA.G in Germany. According to Reuters' analysis of the International Trade Center (ITC) data, in the peak of 2008, Japan and the EU exported about 224 million US dollars and 283 million US dollars of steel pipes to China respectively. But by the time 2012, the EU and Japan’s exports to China were less than $80 million.

Judging from the data of the International Trade Center, Liu Jing, an analyst at Zhuo Chuang Information Steel, said that this indicates that Japan and the EU's exports to China have been decreasing year by year. On the other hand, the stainless steel seamless pipe technology produced in China has been improved, and the products of domestic steel mills can meet the needs of most downstream customers.

In fact, the reporter found that the Sino-European seamless steel pipe dispute has a long history. In September 2010, the EU launched an anti-dumping investigation on Chinese stainless steel seamless pipe products and imposed punitive tariffs. In December 2011, the final levy imposed by the EU on Chinese companies was 48.3%~71.9%. In February of this year, regarding China’s anti-dumping duties on high-performance stainless steel seamless steel pipes imported from Japan and the European Union, Japan and the European Union filed a lawsuit against the WTO, and the WTO Dispute Settlement Expert Group expressed support for the demands of Japan and the European Union. The deliberation of the expert group is equivalent to the “first instance” of the court, and China can appeal to the WTO Appellate Body responsible for the final review. However, the WTO ultimately rejected China’s appeal against anti-dumping duties on seamless steel pipes. In this regard, the Ministry of Commerce expressed regret. The head of the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Commerce responded that the Chinese side deeply regrets the decision of the Appellate Body on price impact analysis, causality analysis, and cost adjustment and fair comparison related to the calculation of dumping margin. The Chinese side will carefully evaluate the Appellate Body report and the expert group report, and will properly handle the implementation of the case in accordance with WTO rules.