Steel Products Prices North America

Canada Hits German, Taiwanese Plate with Anti-dumping Duties

Written by Michael Cowden

January 7, 2021

The Canada Border Services Agency has hit heavy plate from Germany and Taiwan with dumping margins as high as 80.6%.

CBSA slapped German steelmaker AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke with a dumping margin of 6.3% on its exports of heavy plate to Canada. All other German exporters face a dumping margin of 68.6%, according to a Jan. 7 CBSA notice.

China Steel Corporation, the largest integrated steelmaker in Taiwan, was hit with a dumping margin of 7%. All other Taiwanese exporters of heavy plate could see dumping margins of 80.6%, per the CBSA.

The duties will go into effect should the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) decide that heavy plate imports from Germany and Taiwan threaten to injure Canada’s domestic steel industry. The CITT’s findings on the matter are due by Feb. 5, 2021.

The trade case process in Canada is like that in the U.S. The CBSA, like the U.S. Commerce Department, calculates duty margins. The CITT, like the U.S. International Trade Commission, decides whether domestic mills have been injured by imports. In Canada, as in the U.S., duties are not imposed unless imports are determined to have injured domestic mills.

Steel Market Update does not officially track Canadian plate prices. But steel prices in Canada tend to trend with prices in the U.S. once currency exchange rates are considered. And prices have been high, in part because of limited domestic supplies and lower import volumes.

SMU’s average plate price stands at $880 per ton, up $120 per ton from $760 per ton at the beginning of December and up $290 per ton from a summer low of $590 per ton.

By Michael Cowden, michael@steelmarketupdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.

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