China put on a bold face on Monday as it announced that anti-dumping tariffs on several stainless steel items from four particular targets will take effect this week. The four targets are Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union (EU).
According to Reuters, a statement from China's Ministry of Commerce stated that anti-dumping tax duties that will take effect on Tuesday, July 23, will range from around 18.1 percent to 103.1 percent. The products affected are hot-rolled stainless steel plates and steel billets.
The said steel products are being used by Chinese buyers as a raw material in different sectors including rail-making, power segments, shipbuilding, container-making, and other related industries.
Beijing's new move came following last year's complaint lodged by Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel. The state-owned company's complaint kicked off an anti-dumping probe wherein findings indicated that dumping activities were not beneficial for the Chinese market.
"The investigation agency has made a final decree that there was dumping of the investigated products and it has caused substantive damage to the industry in China," the ministry explained.
Europe's steel industry is expected to be largely affected by the new tariffs. The bloc has also received warnings from experts regarding the potential suffering of the European steel industry in the coming months.
Director-General of European Steel Association (EUROFER), Axel Eggert, said late last week that the European Commission should act as soon as possible to protect the bloc's steel sectors.
The group also said in a statement that the ongoing trade disputes with the United States and other "main trading partners," which includes China, will have a massive impact on the overall business sentiment in the steel sector.
"The EU steel market is facing severe challenges which are expected to have a negative impact on apparent steel consumption," the EUROFER said. These warnings came even before China announced its anti-dumping tariffs on European steel products.
Some industry analysts said it may be safe to say that Europe's steel industry woes are not just solely due to the tariff impositions from China since the bloc already had problems within the industry before China's tax duties even took effect.
Meanwhile, South Korean steel also faced some serious setbacks late last month. It was reported that the country's steel furnaces were faced with shutdowns due to environmental violations.
At that time, it was revealed that local governments were against the alleged release of pollutants in the air from steel furnaces around South Korea. Hyundai Steel and Posco are just some of the companies that challenged the shutdown orders.
The countries affected by China's anti-dumping steel tariffs have yet to respond to Beijing's latest move.
