EU confirms Indonesian stainless steel duties extension

The European Commission has confirmed the extension of definitive countervailing duties on Indonesian stainless steel cold rolled products to material imported from Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam.

An official notice detailing the extension of the existing Indonesian CVD measures to imports of SSCR flat products from Taiwan, Turkey, and Vietnam has now been published on the Commission’s website.  

It confirms the application of the existing countervailing duty rate of 20.5% on Indonesian SSCR to imports from Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam alongside the extension of Indonesia’s 19.3% antidumping duty on SSCR to include Taiwan and Vietnam. The Commission will suspend the current Taiwanese 6.8% antidumping duty, for non-exempt companies, to avoid a double imposition of duties.

Confirmation of the measure comes two months after MEPS reported on the preliminary findings of the Commission’s investigation into the potential circumvention of the Indonesian CVD measures first imposed in 2022.  

The investigation covered a period from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2023, and determined that imports from Taiwan, Turkey, and Vietnam had circumvented the countervailing duty on Indonesian SSCR products. 

Exempt companies

Eight companies have been granted exemptions from the new duties. These companies (listed below) proved that there had been no significant increase in their acquisition and export of Indonesia-origin stainless steel during the investigated period. 

Commenting on the extension of the Indonesian CVD measures, MEPS International’s head of price analysis and forecasts, Kaye Ayub, noted that exempt companies must now provide evidence of the country in which stainless steel was originally melted. She added: “The Commission confirmed exemptions from several companies, with no countervailing duty to be paid regardless of the origin of input material. However, they will be monitoring the volumes of Indonesian melted stainless steel from these companies. If a noticeable increase occurs, then the exemptions may be reviewed.” 

She added: “If a company loses their exemption, then it will apply to all their SSCR imports into the EU, regardless of whether they use Indonesian material or not. So, this monitoring process is something of a warning to the exempt companies to not abuse their exemption or they will lose it.” 

The European Commission’s countervailing investigation into imports of Indonesia-origin SSCR from Taiwan, Turkey, and Vietnam was launched in response to a request lodged by the European Steel Association (Eurofer) in July 2023. 

Eurofer described this week’s resolution as an “important step towards restoring a level playing field for the European stainless industry”.  

Director general, Axel Eggert, added: “The anti-circumvention measures published today are important to ensure the complete effectiveness of the original measures and to avoid that artificially cheap, dumped, and subsidised semi-products (stainless slabs and hot rolled coils) sourced from Indonesia freely entering the European market, endangering the European Stainless Steel industry.” 

Evidence of circumvention

The Commission’s investigation period revealed import volumes from Taiwan to the EU had surged following the initiation of antidumping and antisubsidy investigations into Indonesian stainless steel in 2020. Similar trends were observed in Turkey and Vietnam.  

During the investigation period, the Commission found that imports into the EU from Vietnam increased by 174%, imports from Taiwan by 49%, and imports from Turkey by 42%. 

The Commission's investigation rejected arguments that no change to trade patterns, or significant increases in imports from the countries concerned, had occurred. 

Listed below are the exempt companies that, despite buying part of their feedstock material from Indonesia, did not start or substantially increase this activity following the initiation of the original AD investigation:   

Taiwan  

Yieh United Steel Corporation 

Chia Far Industrial Factory Co., Ltd  

Yuan Long Stainless Steel Corp  

Tung Mung Development Co., Ltd  

Tang Eng Iron Works Co., Ltd. 

Walsin Lihwa Corporation  

Turkey  

Posco Assan TST Celik Sanayi A.S.  

Vietnam  

Posco VST Co., Ltd