Posted on 19 Feb 2020
State-owned steelmaker PT Krakatau Steel has submitted an anti-dumping petition against hot-rolled coil/plate (HRC/P) alloy imports from China to the Indonesian Anti-Dumping Committee (KADI).
President director Silmy Karim said in a statement on Monday that the petition, submitted on behalf of the Indonesian Iron and Steel Industry Association (IISIA), was part of an effort to control imports of the product, which can be used as a replacement for carbon steel.
“This is the first time local industry players have submitted an anti-dumping petition on hot-rolled coil alloys from China,” Silmy said in the statement, adding that KADI had also sent a notification of the petition to the Chinese government.
Controls were necessary as local iron and steel industry players suspected that China was dumping its product on Indonesia, he said.
Imports of carbon-akin alloys like boron steel have disrupted the performance of local steel companies because the product is often used as a substitute for the carbon steel produced by many local players. As a result, steel imports rose to 3.2 million tons in 2019 from 1.4 million tons in 2015, according to IISIA data.
Silmy hopes the petition will gain support from related parties, including the government, as he considers it a move to protect the country’s iron and steel industry.
The petition is also a part of the association’s effort to help the government collect import duties on Chinese steel alloys as importers often circumvented trade laws by altering the product harmonized system (HS) code, he added.
The HS code is a widely used goods classification system. It helps facilitate tariff requirements, statistics, rules of origin and commodities export and import supervision, among other processes.
“The circumvention practice in steel imports is a fraudulent practice often used by exporting countries to gain profits from avoiding import fees and receiving export tax rebates,” said Silmy.
Source:The Jakarta Post
