European steel trade group Eurofer has filed an anti-subsidy complaint against EU steel imports of Chinese organic coated sheet (OCS).
The anti-subsidy complaint complements the anti-dumping investigation on the same product initiated by the Commission at the end of December last year.
The anti-subsidy complaint exposes the extent to which China has specific government support programmes covering all aspects of the steel and OCS industry including capacity investment, production, sales and exports of the product concerned.
This includes preferential loans and interest rates, equity programmes, income and other tax arrangements, grants and provision of goods for less than adequate remuneration.
Gordon Moffat, Eurofer’s irector general said: “Clearly the miracle of the Chinese steel industry is not the result of free market forces.
The Chinese government at central, provincial and local level owns, directs and subsidises virtually every aspect of its steel industry and has financed huge excess capacities.”
He added that by promoting a sector intrinsically lacking a genuine cost advantage, China continues to be the major cause of unfair competition in the global steel market injuring the European steel industry.
