Canada CBSA — Provisional Anti-Dumping/Countervailing Duty on Forged Grinding Media from China (FGM 2026 IN)

Mechanism

CBSA opened the investigation under subsection 31(1) of the Special Import Measures Act (SIMA) on 9 January 2026, alleging injurious dumping and subsidizing of Chinese forged/stamped steel grinding media into Canada. On 31 March 2026, CBSA extended the preliminary phase to 135 days "due to the complexity or novelty of the issues" and the number of parties involved (subsection 39(1) SIMA). The preliminary determination landed 25 May 2026: provisional duties now apply at the border to subject goods (HS 7326.11.00.00 — forged/stamped steel grinding balls, 25mm–160mm nominal diameter) released on or after that date, for the five cooperating named exporters individually and an all-others rate for non-cooperating exporters (exact per-exporter margins are published in Appendix 1 of CBSA's Statement of Reasons; a login-gated GTA summary references a duty rate in this range but could not be independently confirmed from the public CBSA text, so no specific percentage is cited here — see Open questions).

Grinding media (steel balls) is a consumable input to ore/mineral grinding circuits in mining and cement production — the product itself sits upstream of metals and materials processing rather than being a critical mineral in its own right.

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) is conducting a parallel injury inquiry (initiated January 2026); a final injury finding is expected 22 September 2026, which will determine whether the provisional duties convert into definitive SIMA duties.

Downstream implications

• Canadian mining and cement operators sourcing grinding balls from the five named Chinese

producers face immediate cost increases on shipments released after 25 May 2026.

• Non-Chinese grinding-media producers (and non-named Chinese exporters facing a lower/undetermined

residual rate) gain a relative cost advantage into the Canadian market pending the CITT's September 2026 injury ruling.

• One more entry in the broader wave of 2025-26 anti-dumping/countervailing actions against Chinese

steel-intensive products (cf. Indonesia KADI's provisional AD duty on Wuhan Iron & Steel hot-rolled coil, filed 2026-05-25-indonesia-kadi-wuhan-hrc-antidumping-provisional) reflecting persistent Chinese steel-sector overcapacity concerns among trading partners.

Open questions

• Exact per-exporter dumping margins and subsidy amounts (CBSA Appendix 1 table) — not extractable

from the publicly accessible CBSA HTML; confirm via the full PDF Statement of Reasons if the quantum becomes needed for severity re-rating.

• Whether CITT's 22 September 2026 injury finding confirms or terminates the provisional duty.