October 08, 2008
ISTA urges for caution on EU AD complaints
The International Steel Trade Association, ISTA is urging the European Commission to take a pragmatic response to EUROFER’s complaints of anti dumping against, among others, China.
ISTA’s committee, comprising some of the world’s leading steel trading organizations as well as members from further down the distribution chain, asserts that any implied impact on European steel producers is likely to be outweighed by the likely consequences for the European consuming industry.
Mr Tony Ward president of International Steel Trade Association speaking on behalf of the membership committee said that “There is no evidence to suggest that, despite increased quantities of Chinese exports to the EU27, domestic producers have suffered any injury. On the contrary, the market continues to be firm and producers, already announcing quarter after quarter of increased profitability, continue to announce further price increases. Also, talk of tonnage is always misleading. Chinese exports to the EU tend to be in commodity grades whereas EU exports to Chinese are in higher more expensive grades. The balance is not as distorted as mere tonnage comparison would suggest.
Mr Ward said that “EU manufacturing needs to be competitive in the international market place and can only achieve this by being able to source its feedstock at internationally competitive prices. Failure to be able to source competitively will help make manufactured products uncompetitive too and have a far greater effect on EU employment prospects. You only have to look at the response of US manufacturers to the imposition of another trade defense instrument (201 Safeguards) to see the wider effect of knee-jerk reactions to a perceived threat which is not properly substantiated. The way forward is surely to engage the Chinese and others in meaningful dialogue to try and resolve such issues in a reasonable way. To do this, all stakeholders need to be involved in the process including, traders, importers, distributors and end users”
Mr Ian Sherwin chairman of ISTA believes that "Any attempt by the EC to block imports by imposing ill-considered anti-dumping measures would offer little benefit to European steel producers but would quickly damage downstream industry across the continent.”
Mr Sherwin added that “It should be noted that all anti dumping complaints on steel are initiated by producers. These same producers, however, only account for some 35% of all deliveries to consuming industries in the EU27. The vast majority of deliveries are through distributors and their views should carry at least the same weight as EUROFER’s views when the Commission weighs up the arguments.”
ISTA’s members represent the entire steel distribution chain, including retail stockholders, who deal with a wide range of steel consumers spanning all industries.
