Similar to the U.S., the under-pricing of Ukrainian metal exports could lead to an increase in antidumping investigations against Ukrainian producers
mports from Indonesia, Japan, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Taiwan and Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine reported on Tuesday.
Last Friday, a spokesman for the Canadian government said that the investigation was initiated due to a decline in the profits of Canadian steel producers, including Stelco Inc. and Dofasco Inc., presumably because of low import prices, the report said.
According to the spokesman, in the third quarter of this year in particular, Stelco Inc. suffered losses of 8 million Canadian dollars, while it made profits of $37 million over the same period last year.
Dofasco Inc. was also hit by cheap imports, the report said. The company’s net profits during the third quarter fell from $66.9 million to $50 million.
Volodymyr Stetsenko, the head of the Ukrainian government’s department for trade restrictions and control over foreign economic activity, had said earlier that a “significant increase in Ukrainian metal exports in 2000 at a less than fair value may lead to a growing number of antidumping investigations against Ukrainian producers, particularly, in North America.”
Presently, Stetsenko said, the average price for metal on the U.S. market is $300 per metric ton, whereas Ukrainian exporters sell their metal on that market at $230 (per metric ton).
A similar situation can be observed in Canada, Stetsenko said.
In addition to this, Stetsenko said that the international community has charged Ukraine with subsidizing domestic metallurgical production.
The Cabinet of Ministers has granted tax breaks to Ukrainian metallurgical companies within the framework of an economic experiment, according to the Interfax report.
According to Stetsenko, last year, Russian exporters ‘flooded’ the American market with metal at dumping prices, which resulted in the U.S. government closing its domestic market to Russian metal producers.
During his recent visit to Kyiv, the U.S. first deputy secretary of commerce had warned Ukraine that the U.S. government would begin antidumping proceedings against Ukrainian metal exporters, the report said.
