China Imposes Provisional Duties on U.S., Russian Steel Imports

Flat-rolled electrical steel products from steelmakers including AK Steel Holding Corp., OAO Novolipetsk Steel and Allegheny Ludlum Corp., would attract duties of as much as 25 percent from tomorrow, China's commerce ministry said in two statements on its Web site today. The steel is used to make power transformers.

Disputes between China and its trading partners are escalating as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression spurred countries to protect jobs. China and the U.S., with $409 billion in annual two-way trade, have swapped complaints about steel, tires, and cars this year.

"Chinese steelmakers including Baosteel Group Corp. and Wuhan Iron & Steel Group filed the complaints in mid-year after imports surged from U.S. and Russia," said Hu Yanping, analyst at researcher Umetal.

U.S. President Obama in a visit to Beijing last month pledged with China President Hu Jintao to work on easing trade frictions. Obama imposed tariffs on Chinese tires in September, and the U.S. later levied duties on some Chinese steel pipes.

First Probe

U.S. steel products will face two duties, one for subsidies and the other for dumping, the Chinese ministry said in its statement. Russian companies will only pay tariffs for anti- dumping, it said. A final ruling will be decided later, the ministry said, without giving a time frame.

"This is the first time China has conducted an anti- subsidy and anti-dumping investigation," the ministry said in the statement. The imports have hurt the Chinese steel industry, it said.

China protested U.S. duties of as much as 99 percent on $3.2 billion of Chinese steel pipe exports on Nov. 6, and announced the start of an anti-dumping probe into American carmakers.

The commerce ministry in October made a preliminary ruling that U.S., European, Russian and Taiwanese chemical companies had dumped nylon fibers at below-cost prices in the Chinese market. Nylon is used in manufacture of textiles, toothbrushes.

Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., the listed unit of Baosteel, fell 2.3 percent to 9.02 yuan in Shanghai at 1:28 p.m. Wuhan Iron & Steel Co., gained 1 percent to 8.40 yuan, also in Shanghai.