Severstal has started exporting cold-rolled coils to the European Union from China instead of Russia-made.
“We have already started buying Chinese cold-rolled coils for our steel service centers. Duties on Chinese products are lower than on Russian, so it’s better for us to bring steel from China”, the company CEO Vadim Larin said.
According to him, cold-rolled steel sales in EU account for only 2% of the total Severstal sales, with 6-7% on behalf of hot-rolled metal.
In August Europe imposed 22.1% import duties on cold-rolled coils from China and 36.1% from Russia.
At present the European Commission is carrying out an antidumping investigation as to hot-rolled coil imports from Brazil, Iran, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine.
“If the HR duties are imposed, that will greatly affect us. We would have to redirect volumes from Europe to far regions and lose profit”, he added. (Ukrainian metal)