Mexico Considers Posco Cold Rolled Steel Import Quota

Mexico is revising South Korean steelmaker Posco's commitments to import cold rolled steel into the country. So says the Mexican Minister of Economy (SE) in a document published in the official gazette.

Posco says it expects growth in the Mexican automotive sector between 2019 and 2023 and therefore the demand for galvanized steel will improve. “This prospect is supported by the latest reports from the local automobile association Amia and the national steel chamber Canacero, which necessitates a review of Posco's CRC cold-rolled steel exports to the Mexican market over that period,” Stalevar says. The company notes that expansion of projects in Posco Mexico and Posco MPPC, as well as direct sales to customers, are also important reasons for the review.

Based on the above, Posco proposes to increase its import quotas over the next 5 years. This will be 547,500 tonnes of cold rolled steel in 2019, 585,000 tonnes in 2020, 606,000 tonnes in 2021, and 633,000 tonnes and 677,000 tonnes in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

For the period 2014-2018, the annual import quota for CRC Posco was 400,000-545,000 tons.

Mexico launched a formal anti-dumping investigation into South Korean CRC imports and imposed countervailing duties of 6.45% on such imports from Hyundai Hysco and 60.40% from Posco in June 2013. Both the investigation and the measures were canceled in December 2013 after the company agreed to export CRCs to Mexico on a quota.