During the SteelOrbis 2016 Spring Conference & 74th IREPAS Meeting being held in Lisbon on April 10-12, Bernd Neuenkirchen from international steel trading company C&F International, said that in terms of rebar imports in the US, Mexico fell out of the market when it was struck with relatively high rates of antidumping duty in 2013 and its volume was replaced by Japan in 2015. On the other hand, Turkey was the biggest rebar importer to the US with 1.4 million mt in the given year, which was equal to 77 percent of total rebar imports into the country. As regards the wire rod import trade, Mr. Neuenkirchen said that there is no dominant player in the US market, but Canada usually takes the lead and even Turkey is not as big as it is in the rebar market, being the third-biggest supplier of wire rod imports in 2015.
Regarding the recalculation of the countervailing duty rate on rebar imports from Turkey, the C&F International official stressed that the recalculated duty of 3.64 percent for all Turkish producers except Habas has not yet become official and that the current duty still stands at 1.25 percent. He said the US Court of International Trade (CIT) will issue its ruling in about six weeks. He also warned that, although the difference between 1.25 percent and 3.64 percent does not seem so big, “price is everything in rebar so it is quite important”.
Mr. Neuenkirchen pointed out that the average level of antidumping duties imposed by the EU commission stands at an extremely low level of 44 percent compared to 146 percent in the US. Considering the current situation of the UK steel industry which is blaming exports for the losses it makes, the EU was a bit late in protecting its steel industry, he noted.