China to restrict scrap metal imports starting from July

Chinese importers will have to receive licenses and quotas from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment for certain scrap metal imports, according to Reuters. As of July 1, the ministry will start accepting requests for import licenses, while the import quota volume has not been disclosed. As of the same date, imports of eight scrap grades including copper, aluminum and steel... Read More

Canada and Mexico officially lift retaliatory tariffs against the US

According to multiple news reports, Canada and Mexico on Monday lifted retaliatory tariffs on US goods, including steel,  aluminum, whiskey and beef, after the US lifted on Friday Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the two countries. All three countries are currently working on ratifying the new USMCA trade deal. Canada and Mexico had both insisted previously... Read More

US to lift Section 232 tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports

In a joint statement today, the US and Canadian governments announced the US will lift Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico, in anticipation of ratifying the new USMCA trade deal. Canada in turn will remove retaliatory tariffs on US exports to the country. In addition, the US and Canada will drop all pending litigation in the World Trade Organization... Read More

US reduces tariffs on Turkey to 25 percent

The White House has announced that the 50 percent duty on Turkish steel imports has been halved to 25 percent as of May 17. In a statement, the administration said that since the implementation of the higher tariff, steel imports from Turkey declined 48 percent in 2018, “with the result that the domestic industry’s capacity utilization has improved at this point to approximately... Read More

Short Range Outlook : May 2019

Global long steel market mostly unstable despite supply-demand equilibrium A balance has been maintained between supply and demand in the global long steel products market, but it is still difficult to transact business globally. However, shorter-distance regional business is good. The global market can be described as mostly unstable, with only a few exceptions. Absence of Chinese... Read More

EU transfers unused quotas to “other countries”

The European Commission has transferred the quotas under “other countries” and “all third countries” which were unused between February 2 and March 31 to the “other countries” quotas for the April 1-June 30 period as of May 2. Accordingly, an additional volume of 19,704 mt has been added to the “other countries” rebar quota, which had been quickly used up in early... Read More

Australia removes preliminary antidumping duty on Turkish rebar imports

The Australian Government Antidumping Commission has announced that it has terminated the preliminary antidumping duty on imports of Turkish origin reinforcing bars. Australia imposed four percent preliminary antidumping duty on imports of Turkish rebar in January 2019 as a result of the investigation started in November 2018. The final recommendation of the commission is due by... Read More

Turkey increased import duty on rebar imports from non WTO member countries

According to Turkey’s Official Gazette published on April 17, Turkey has increased the 10 percent import duty on rebar to 30 percent for countries which are not members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Iran stands out as one of the non-WTO countries whose rebar exports to Turkey have increased lately. Towards the end of last year, Iran started to be seen as a threat to the... Read More

Egypt imposes provisional safeguard duty on billet and rebar imports

The Egyptian government has notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it has imposed a provisional safeguard duty on steel billet and rebar imports for a period of 180 days starting from April 15. Egypt will collect up to 15 percent duty on billet imports and 25 percent duty on rebar imports. According to the notification made to the WTO, imports from developing countries... Read More

IREPAS in Barcelona : Protectionism, raw materials and Turkey top the agenda

The 80th meeting of IREPAS (International Rebar Exporters and Producers Association) was held in Barcelona, Spain on April 7-9, 2019. There were 132 producer representatives among the 416 registered delegates from a total of 48 different countries. There were also 70 registrations representing 40 different raw material suppliers. At the opening of the conference Murat Cebecioglu,... Read More