Korea’s trade watchdog on Monday decided to recommend the government accept a proposal from Japanese and Chinese steel companies to raise export prices of their hot-rolled carbon and alloy steel products over the next five years as part of anti-dumping remedies.
The Korea Trade Commission (KTC) said it will make such a recommendation to the Ministry of Economy and Finance for three Japanese and six Chinese steel exporters that made price adjustment proposals.
The companies have proposed a price undertaking after the KTC reached a preliminary decision in September to impose anti-dumping duties, having determined that the exporters inflicted damage on the Korean steel industry through dumping practices.
The nine companies accounted for about 81 percent of Korea’s imports of hot-rolled steel products from 2022-24.
The KTC said it will recommend the ministry levy anti-dumping tariffs of up to 33.43 percent for the next five years on other Japanese and Chinese companies that did not make such proposals.
Trade authorities launched an investigation into the case in March last year, about three months after Hyundai Steel filed a complaint with the government against hot-rolled steel imports from Japan and China.
The KTC said it expects the trade remedy measure to help Korean steel companies expand their domestic market share by 8.9 percentage points and increase their combined production by 1 million tons.