Iran wants to raise duties on steel imports from China

Iranian steel companies have asked the government to raise import duties on some steels to 40 percent as cheap sales have skyrocketed around the world, mainly from the largest steel producer, China.

Steel exports from China are up nearly 30 percent this year from a record high last year, despite government efforts to curb overcapacity and tighten environmental regulations. The fall in Chinese domestic demand for steel continues to stimulate some of the country's metallurgists to sell their steel products abroad, even at a loss to themselves.

At the same time, retaliatory measures to protect their own metallurgists were taken this year in many countries, including the European Union, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico and India. A board member of the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA) said: "We were forced to ask the government to increase import duties on flat steel products to 40 percent. For rolled steel, we plan to raise duties to 30 percent." However, the request has not yet been answered by the Iranian Ministry of Mines, Trade and Industry.

Earlier this year, Iran already raised import duties on some imported steel products to 10 to 20 percent in response to an ISPA request and a government request to diversify its economy and oil. Official Tehran is trying to protect its metallurgical and iron ore industry, which it assigns to a strategic role, since it provides production at enterprises from many related industries, including construction, oil production and processing, where millions of people work.

The Association of Iranian Steel Producers believes that domestic metallurgists do not have adequate protection in the form of anti-dumping duties on the local steel market in Iran, and has high hopes that measures such as anti-dumping duties will be really effective. At the same time, most of the volume of imported steel comes to Iran from China, therefore, the greatest threat to Iranian steelmakers is this country, as ISPA specifies.