Chile's Anti-Price Distortion Commission, or CNDP, recommended a provisional duty of 13.1% for imports of rebar from Mexico for an initial period of four months.
The announcement was published in the official gazette on Thursday and is already valid. After the four-month period, the duty could be extended.
The duty affects imports only from Mexico. The duties apply to material under HS codes 7213.1000, 7214.2000, 7227.9000 and 7228.3000.
In the end of March, Mexican steelmaker DeAcero -- responsible for major rebar exports to Chile -- denied it was dumping rebar to the Andean country, saying the company was not undertaking unfair dumping practices.
The company said it was attending to the process properly and submitted its arguments to the commission last February, highlighting the absence of dumping based on sales information submitted, comparing the prices at which rebar is sold in Mexico to prices that are exported and sold in Chile, it said at the time.
Chile's CAP Acero and Gerdau requested in November that CNDP investigate the antidumping practice over DeAcero's rebar exports to Chile.
"The decision of the regulator to apply a provisional duty of 13.1%, while it is less than we requested in our submission November 2015 of 27.5%, notes that DeAcero entered their products to the Chilean market at prices lower than those which are marketed in Mexico," Gerdau Chile CEO Italo Ozzano said Thursday.
DeAcero was not available for comment on Friday.
