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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] South Korea will impose anti-dumping duties of up to 33.43 percent on hot-rolled steel plates (less than 3 mm thick) imported from Japan and China, the government said on Sunday, a move aimed at easing pressure on the domestic steel industry.
Hot-rolled steel is a key input used to produce cold-rolled steel, steel pipes and other downstream products, and is widely utilized across manufacturing sectors such as automotive, shipbuilding and machinery. As of 2024, the domestic market for hot-rolled products is estimated to be worth around KRW 10 trillion.
The Korea Trade Commission, under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said it confirmed that domestic producers suffered material injury due to dumping practices by Japanese and Chinese companies, which shipped large volumes of hot-rolled carbon steel and alloy steel into the Korean market at unfairly low prices.
At its 470th meeting held on Sunday, the commission decided to recommend that the Ministry of Economy and Finance impose anti-dumping duties of 31.58–33.43 percent on Japanese products and 28.16–33.10 percent on Chinese products. Imports from the two countries had previously entered Korea duty-free under bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
If approved by the finance minister, the duties will be finalized and imposed, with implementation expected in the first half of this year.
At the same time, the commission said it would recommend that the finance ministry accept so-called “price undertakings” from nine Japanese and Chinese hot-rolled steel producers. Under the system, companies can avoid anti-dumping duties—potentially exceeding 33 percent—by voluntarily raising their export prices to Korea by a specified amount.
If the finance ministry approves the proposed price increases after reviewing export prices, the companies will be required to ship products at the pre-declared higher prices and undergo quarterly compliance checks.
The dual-track approach is intended to balance competing interests. While domestic hot-rolled steel producers are expected to benefit from the anti-dumping duties, the acceptance of price undertakings is aimed at cushioning the impact on small and mid-sized Korean companies that rely entirely on imported Japanese and Chinese hot-rolled steel for processing and resale, and could otherwise face sharp increases in input costs.
알파경제 Paul Lee 특파원(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
