Egyptian Steel Sector Files Anti-Dumping Claim Against Wire Rod and Rebar Imports

CAIRO (Scrap Monster): Steel companies of Egypt have filed an appeal against wire rod and rebar imports from China, Ukraine and Turkey during Tuesday, in order to protect the industry from imports of low price.

Egyptian Steel and other premiers in steel making have requested the government to re-impose the anti-dumping duties on the wire rod and rebar imports, said Ahmed Abou Hashima, chief executive of Egyptian Steel. Wire rods and rebars are the main components in the construction field.

Egyptian steel industry is now going through critical time that it is still recovering from the political issues and the global market is struggling with low prices and surplus quantities due to weak demand.

Abou Hashima questioned that how foreign rebar and wire rod could enter the country with zero customs. He said that they have many sophisticated industries in Egypt, particularly in steel, however they have to protect it. The only way to develop the Egyptian economy is to change from customers to industrials, he added.

Worldsteel showed that the output from Egyptian steel sector dropped at an annual rate of 8 pct in the first four month of 2012, to about 2.05 million tonnes. Last year, sector has seen just a 1.9 pct rise even though there was political turmoil.

This year April, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed preliminary duties one the imports from Turkey and Mexico for selling steel rebar at unfairly low prices. At first, Industry Ministry of Egypt excluded Turkey from import duties, but now they declined to comment for the same. Turkey is the major steel rebar exporter in the world.

Egyptian Steel is now planning to improve its production capacity to above 2 million tonnes per annum by the end of 2016 from the current production capacity of 355,000 tonnes.