- In a notice recently, the National Tariff Commission (NTC) announced that it has decided to continue the anti-dumping duty of 19.15% on imports of steel rebars from China. The decision is effective from October 17, 2022, for a period of five years.
- To give background, three rebar manufacturers, Amreli Steels, Agha Steels, and Abbas Engineering, approached NTC on October 14, 2016, regarding imports of rebar from China at a dumped price that was causing material injury to the domestic industry.
- On Oct 23, 2017, after its due process, NTC imposed an antidumping duty of 19.15% for 5 years with effect from Oct 23, 2017, till Oct 22, 2022.
- On October 17, 2022, Amreli Steels (ASTL), Agha Steels (AGHA), and Mughal Steels (MUGHAL) filed a sunset review application. Based on that application and after conducting further studies, NTC has continued the duties for five more years with effect from October 17, 2022.
- To note, the import of bars under various PCT codes mentioned in the NTC notice (refer to the side table) was over 125,000 tons in FY16 (before duties), which was reduced to just 3-4k tons in FY22.
- In our view, the continuation of duties will be neutral to positive for list-long steel manufacturers, i.e. ASTL, AGHA, and MUGHAL, as there have been no significant imports from China in the last 3-4 years. Meanwhile, the reimposition of duties will continue to protect local players.
Courtesy – Topline Research
