Brazil levies duties on boron-doped steel sheet from China and Ukraine

Brazil plans to impose anti-dumping sanctions on imports of boron-doped steel sheets from China and Ukraine. Brazil's Foreign Trade Bureau SecEx has decided to add painted heavy slabs to the products subject to such a fine. The size of the punishment for the Chinese plate is $ 211.56 per ton and for Ukraine - $ 261.79 per ton.

SecEx has been applying anti-dumping duties on heavy plate from China, Ukraine, South Africa and South Korea since October 2013. They are valid for five years. Anti-dumping sanctions apply to low-carbon plates with a thickness of 4.75 mm and a width of 600 mm (excluding some API grades) under the code HS 7210.70.10 from China and for plates with boron added from China and Ukraine under the code HS 7250.40.90.

The fact is that adding only 0.0008 percent boron turns carbon steels into a “alloy” of steel with a different tariff rating, and importers used this provision in trade to reduce duties. However, it has now been found that a boron board without special treatment and heat treatment has the same physical characteristics.

Brazil's only plate maker Usiminas in March asked for anti-dumping sanctions on painted heavy slabs from China and boron-doped plates from China and Ukraine. Usiminas Industrial Complex is the largest unalloyed steel complex in Latin America and is ranked in the top 20 in the world. Usiminas owns large steel mills in Brazil with a total capacity of 9.5 million tonnes of steel per year. The company accounts for 28 percent of Brazil's total steel production.