THE European Union will impose anti-dumping duties later this month on imports of stainless steel cold-rolled sheet from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, according to two sources familiar with a European Commission proposal.

    The commission plans to set tariffs of about 25 percent for imports from the Chinese mainland and of about 12 percent for Taiwanese products, following a complaint lodged in May 2014 by the European steel producers association, Eurofer.

    The commission will present its proposal to EU member states this week and by March 26 will put in place the duties, which are provisional pending the outcome of an investigation due to end in September.

    Eurofer says that China shipped 620 million euros (US$680 million) worth of cold-rolled stainless steel into the European Union in 2013, some 17 percent of the overall market, and was guilty of dumping, or selling at unfairly low prices.

    A parallel investigation into alleged illegal subsidies for Chinese producers is also due to end in September.

    The commission, prompted by Eurofer, is also investigating alleged dumping of grain-oriented flat-rolled electrical steel, typically used in transformers, by producers in China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.

    Eurofer is also seeking to prolong existing duties on Chinese imports of wire rod.

    Eurofer told a news conference Thursday that, despite a lower euro and a slow pick-up of European demand, European producers were still confronted with a massive increase of imports from Asia, and from China in particular.

    Total Chinese steel exports rose to a historic peak of 93 million tons in 2014, Eurofer said, equivalent to 60 percent of total EU steel consumption.

    (SD-Agencies)