Turkish Trade Ministry informed the EC that it has started a dumping investigation against hot-rolled coil imports from the EU region.

“Turkish Trade Ministry accepted our request in this regard and started a dumping investigation at the end of last week on imports of HRC to Turkey from the EU region, as a counter measure against EU’s imposition of trade barriers on Turkish steel,” the source said.

The EC announced Dec. 17 that it decided to impose an anti-dumping duty of 4.8%-7.6% on imports of Turkish HRC, as S&P Global Platts has reported. The duties will be imposed on a provisional basis on Jan. 14, 2021 and will be valid for six months. Definitive duties are scheduled to be set by July 13, 2021.

Turkish steel producers have called upon the Turkish government to impose similar counter measures on steel imports from the EU and Turkey informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) in May that custom duties could be imposed on steel imports from the EU.

Turkish mills imported around 1.3 million mt of HRC from the EU region in the first ten months of 2020, relatively flat on year, according to Platts’ calculations from the latest Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) data.