interesting that with steel prices surging 60% for the year, various steel producers are just now temporarily cutting tariffs against those countries that were dumping steel below cost
quote.bloomberg.com
Thailand Scraps Hot-Rolled Steel Tariff to Cut Prices (Update1)
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Thailand scrapped import tariffs on hot-rolled steel from Japan, South Korea and 12 other countries to halt rising prices and ease shortages, Commerce Minister Wattana Muangsook said.
The government will waive the duty for the next 6 months, Wattana told reporters at the commerce ministry in Nonthaburi, a suburb of Bangkok. Hot-rolled steel is used to manufacture products from electrical appliances to automobiles.
Thailand has imposed duty of as much as 128 percent on hot- rolled steel imports from 14 countries after the government found producers sold the product below cost. The duty has benefited steelmakers such as Sahaviriya Steel Industry Pcl, Thailand's biggest hot-rolled producer, whose profit rose to a record 4.7 billion baht ($120 million) in 2003.
The commerce ministry yesterday raised the maximum price that Sahaviriya, Nakornthai Strip Mill Pcl and other hot-rolled steelmakers can charge for their products by as much as 31 percent after domestic producers sought increases in the face of rising raw material and freight costs.
Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's biggest steelmaker, and other Japanese producers have to pay tariffs of 36.3 percent for the sale of their hot-rolled steel in Thailand. Posco, the world's second-largest steelmaker, and other Korean producers pay 14 percent. Iscor Ltd. and other South African steel companies pay 128 percent.
Tariffs have also been imposed on producers from such countries as India, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, Indonesia and Argentina. |
