Regulation 2008/435 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1371/2005 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel from the USA and Russia and repealing the anti-dumping duties imposed by Regulation (EC) No 1371/2005 on imports of grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel from Russia - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 132/1

By Regulation (EC) No 1371/2005 (2), the Council imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel (‘GOES’) originating in the United States of America (‘USA’) and Russia (the ‘definitive Regulation’).

By Decision 2005/622/EC (3), the Commission accepted price undertakings offered by two cooperating exporting producers whose exports to the Community of GOES are subject to a company-specific duty of 31,5 % (AK Steel Corporation, USA) and 11,5 % (Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Corporation (‘NLMK’), Russia). The anti-dumping duties applicable to imports from all other companies, except Viz Stal, Russia, which is subject to a duty of 0 %, are 37,8 % for the USA and 11,5 % for Russia.

The Commission was notified in early 2007 that NLMK had acquired 100 % of Viz Stal. Evidence was provided regarding the production, sales and distribution of GOES under the new corporate structure. As a consequence, the circumstances on the basis of which the measures were established appeared to have changed in a lasting way and the dumping margin under the new corporate structure appeared to be significantly different as compared to the level of the measures in force.

Having determined that there was sufficient prima facie evidence that the individual duties in force for NLMK and Viz Stal were no longer appropriate, and after consulting the Advisory Committee, the Commission initiated ex officio, by a notice (‘notice of initiation’) published in the Official Journal of the European Union, a partial interim review in accordance with Article 11(3) of the basic Regulation (4). The investigation was limited to the examination of the level of dumping for the two Russian exporting producers NLMK and Viz Stal in order to calculate one single measure for the new joint company. As stated in the notice of initiation, this examination would be made on the basis of data collected during the investigation that led to the imposition of the existing measures.

The product under review is grain-oriented flat-rolled products of silicon-electrical steel, of a thickness of more than 0,16 mm, currently classifiable within CN codes ex 7225 11 00 (of a width of 600 mm or more) and ex 7226 11 00 (of a width of less than 600 mm).

GOES are produced from hot-rolled coils of silicon-alloyed steel of different thicknesses of which the particular grain structure is uniformly directed in order to allow for magnetic conductivity with a high degree of efficiency. Inefficiency with regard to this magnetic conductivity is called ‘core loss’, which is the prime indicator of the quality of the product.

The market is typically divided into high...