It was reported that the Colombian Committee of Steel Producers would present to Colombian government a new commercial defense measure in order to alleviate the negative effects that the national industry has suffered due to the diversion of steel from countries such as China, Turkey and Russia.
The committee’s director Maria Juliana Ospina said that the situation was worrisome. The prices of foreign steel coming to Colombia were far below the normal level, which let the national industry not to compete on the same basis.
In the first semester of 2018, 25,000 tons of steel arrived in Colombia from Turkey and this situation continues. It was estimated that it could reach some 137,000 tons in 2020, which was alarming for domestic steel producers.
Ospina pointed out that currently Colombian utilization of the installed steel capacity was 64%. If government did nothing, the situation would fall to a level of less than 40%.
