It is reported that at the request of European steelmakers, the European Commission is expected to open antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into imports of stainless steel cold finished bars from India at the end of March.

A newsletter from the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries has pointed out that the Indian share of total European imports for the products in question increased from 39% in 2005 to 57.9% in 2008 and 59.3% in 2009.

EUROFER said that Indian exporters benefit from a number of regional subsidies, in addition to nationwide subsidy schemes.

It said “Crucially, EU imports of Indian SSCFB are at low and fast decreasing prices and the EU steel industry has found it to be impossible to fight against unfairly-priced Indian SSCFB imports, undercutting its prices by up to 40%.”

The products are widely used in a variety of applications including in the chemical and building industries, domestic appliances and in the automotive industry. India is by far the largest SSCFB exporter to the EU, exporting over 30,000 tonnes to the EU in 2008.

(Sourced from SteelOrbis)