The European Commission has decided to not impose provisional duties on hot-rolled flat steel products from Brazil, Iran, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine, despite finding injury to domestic producers, it confirmed to S&P Global Platts Friday.
"[The] Commission accepted at this stage the claim that the imposition of measures would lead to a further price increase of the product concerned, at the expense of users in view of the alleged post investigation period price increases," it said, explaining why no provisional duty would be put in place.
The Commission found imports from Serbia should be not be cumulatively assessed with the other four countries, as it was only just over the minimum market share threshold, at 1.04%, and average selling prices were considerably above the other countries.
"It follows that protective measures are unnecessary with regard to the imports of HRF originating in Serbia," the document seen by Platts said.
Some suggested this could mean it would be excluded from the case, but the Commission refused to comment.
The EC found provisional dumping margins of 16.3%-172.1% for Brazilian exporters, 22.8% for Mobarakeh in Iran, 6.9%-33.03% for Russian producers, 38.7% for Smederevo in Serbia and 17.7% for Metinvest and all other Ukrainian exporters.
The importing countries had a market share of 13.62% in the investigation period, up from 7.93% in 2013.
Over the same period average selling prices also fell from Eur443/mt to Eur327/mt, the document said.
"There is a coincidence in time between the sharp increase of, in particular, the volume of the dumped imports at continuous decreasing sales prices from Brazil, Iran, Russia and Ukraine on the one hand, and the drop of the Union's performance on the other hand, in particular from the second half of 2015 onwards," the document added.
"The Union industry had no other choice but to follow the price level set by the dumped imports in order to avoid losing further market share. This resulted in a loss-making situation."
It also said the imposition of provisional duties would "restore fair trade conditions on the Union market."
Nevertheless, the Commission opted against provisional duties as it found these would be "against the interest of all users."
Marcegaglia, which took part in the investigation, said an 18% ADD against China and 10% ADD against the countries concerned would lead it to breakeven -- an 18% ADD against China and 20% against the countries concerned would lead to a loss.
"The Commission considered that there was therefore a considerable risk that ad-valorem duties in the range above would drive this company into sustained losses," it said.
It also said a consortium of end-users that took part in the investigation would "risk more drastic consequences in their negotiating power vis-a-vis the Union producers was much smaller."
