The National Tariff Commission (NTC) has announced that it has decided to continue the anti-dumping duty of 19.15 percent on imports of steel rebars from China, read a notice issued on Friday.
The decision is effective from October 17, 2022, for a period of five years.
Notably, steel billets are the raw materials for producing rebars.
Topline Securities said in a report that three rebar manufacturers, Amreli Steels, Agha Steels, and Abbas Engineering approached NTC on October 14, 2016, regarding imports of rebar from China at a dumped price that was causing material injury to domestic industry.
On October 23, 2017, after following its due process, NTC imposed the antidumping duty of 19.15 percent for 5 years with effect from October 23, 2017, till October 22, 2022.
On October 17, 2022, Amreli Steels (ASTL), Agha Steels (AGHA), and Mughal Steels (MUGHAL) filed a sunset review application. Based on that application and after conducting further studies, NTC has continued the duties for a further five years with effect from October 17, 2022.
To note, the import of bars under various PCT codes mentioned in the NTC notice was over 125,000 tons in FY16 (before duties) which was reduced to just 3,000-4,000 tons in FY22.
The Topline report said the continuation of duties will be neutral to positive for list long steel manufacturers, i.e. ASTL, AGHA, and MUGHAL as there were no significant imports from China in the last 3-4 years while the reimposition of duties will continue to protect local players.
