The government will launch an anti-dumping probe into Chinese galvanized and color steel sheets.
The Trade Commission of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on the 28th that it decided to open an investigation in connection with a request by three companies—Dongkuk CM, KG Steel, and Seah CM—for an anti-dumping probe into Chinese galvanized and color steel sheets.
Those surveyed are galvanized steel sheets plated with zinc, aluminum, or magnesium less than 4.75 mm thick, and color steel sheets coated with paint and the like. Those surveyed corporations are three in China: Baosteel, Baoyang, and Winstone.
The commission plans to issue determinations on dumping and whether the domestic industry suffered injury after a three-month preliminary investigation followed by a three-month final investigation. Each period can be extended by two months.
Earlier, Dongkuk CM, KG Steel, and Seah CM filed an anti-dumping petition with the commission. They said low-priced products that fall short of Korea's Building Act standards are entering at prices lower than domestic products, disrupting the home market and threatening public housing safety.
Galvanized and color steel sheets are steel materials mainly used for construction. Low-priced materials are used as single-color sandwich panels for factories and warehouses, while higher-priced materials with design and functionality are used for roofs, interior walls, exterior walls, and signs as interior and exterior construction materials.
Over the past three years, imports of Chinese galvanized and color steel sheets for construction rose 34.2% from 760,000 tons a year to 1.02 million tons. Over the same period, the import price per ton fell 23.3% from $952 to $730.
As a result, Dongkuk CM's operating profit on a domestic-sales basis fell 84% year over year in galvanized steel sheets for construction last year, and decreased 24% in color steel sheets for construction.
Industry officials say that as the tariff barrier on Chinese hot-rolled steel sheets has risen, exports by Chinese corporations via indirect routes have surged. They said the corporations exploited a loophole by applying only simple post-processing to semi-finished hot-rolled steel sheets to make them into galvanized and color steel sheets.
The domestic industry filed an anti-dumping petition on Chinese thick plate with the Trade Commission last year and secured a decision on provisional safeguard tariffs of up to 38%. The government also issued a preliminary anti-dumping tariff determination of up to 33.57% on Chinese and Japanese hot-rolled steel sheets in July and began enforcement on Sept. 23.