Government Announces Further Investigation into Alleged Dumping and Subsidisation Affecting Steel Products

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Government Announces Further Investigation into Alleged Dumping and Subsidisation Affecting Steel Products

The Australian newspaper of today carries a notice from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (“Customs”) announcing the commencement of an investigation into the alleged dumping of hot rolled plate steel from China, Indonesia, Japan, and Taiwan together with an investigation into alleged subsidisation of hot rolled plate steel exported to Australia from China.

According to the notice, the goods subject to the application are flat-rolled products of:

  • iron
  • non-alloy steel
  • non-heat treated alloy steel of a kind commonly referred to as Quench and Tempered (“Q&T”) Green Feed and
  • of a width greater than 600 millimetres with a thickness equal to or greater than 4.75 millimetres not further worked than hot-rolled, not in coils with or without patterns in relief.

Goods excluded from the investigation are:

  • 250 megapascal (MPa) yield strength grades of plate steel with a thickness greater than 150 millimetres
  • 350 MPa yield strength grades of plate steel with a thickness greater than 100 millimetres
  • Q&T Green Feed grades of plate steel with a thickness of greater than 105 millimetres and
  • heat treated Q&T grades of plate steel.

The goods are classified to the following tariff subheadings in Schedule 3 of the Customs Tariff Act 1955 being;

  • 7208.40.00 (statistical code 39)
  • 7208.51.00 (statistical code 40)
  • 7208.52.00 (statistical code 41) and
  • 7225.40.00 (statistical codes 22 and 24).

As many would be aware, there have been a number of investigations regarding the alleged dumping or of steel products from Asia including Hollow Steel Sections, Hot Rolled Coil Steel and various types of Galvanised Steel.

As with recent investigations, the applicant is BlueScope Steel Limited.

We have been involved in recent investigations both for Asian exporters and for Australian importers and users of steel and would be pleased to provide assistance to those affected by the investigation.