The Korean steel industry is preparing to file an anti-dumping case against cheap Chinese and Japanese hot-rolled steel products.
The Korean steel industry led by POSCO is preparing to file an anti-dumping complaint against Chinese and Japanese steel products, according to sources in the steel industry on Jan. 25.
Currently, a large portion of the Chinese and Japanese steel imported to Korea is hot-rolled steel plates. It accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the country’s annual steel imports. Hot rolled steel plates are produced by steel mills with blast furnaces. POSCO, which also has blast furnace facilities is responsible for about 80 percent of domestic hot-rolled steel plate production. In this situation, as raw material prices have risen, the Korean steel industry, including POSCO which has found it difficult to compete with relatively cheap imports, has begun to consider filing anti-dumping cases against them.
However, small and medium-sized Korean steelmakers without blast furnaces such as Dongkuk Steel and SeAH Steel are not happy about the move. This is because if Korean companies have exclusive sales rights and the prices of hot-rolled steel plates remain high, it may deal a blow to these companies that use hot-rolled steel plates to make products.
A similar situation occurred in 2020 when an anti-dumping case was filed against stainless steel products that only POSCO could produce, according to small and medium-sized companies. As many businesses have suffered damages due to the importation of quota quantities at prices similar to domestic ones, anti-dumping cases related to basic materials should be decided after in-depth discussions, they say.
On the other hand, large steelmakers argue that the Korean industrial base is being weakened by an indiscriminate influx of Chinese and Japanese steel products, so proper measures are needed. In fact, Chinese products, which were simply cheaper, have become more competitive in quality, and Japanese products are benefiting from a weaker Japanese yen.