Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Communiqué No. 2026/17 in Resmî Gazete No. 33282 on 16 June 2026, imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of cold-rolled flat steel (excluding non-annealed), galvanized flat steel, and pre-painted flat steel originating in the People's Republic of China and South Korea, covering products under GTIP codes 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7225, and 7226. The investigation — initiated under Communiqué No. 2024/41 of 25 December 2024 — found that dumped imports from both countries were causing material injury to domestic producers. Duty rates for Chinese exporters range from 22.37% (Angang Steel) to 32.40% (all-others CIF); South Korean rates range from 10.48% (POSCO) to 27.00% (all-others). The measure runs for five years from the date of publication, under Law No. 3577 on Prevention of Unfair Competition in Imports.

On 16 April 2026 the Korea Trade Commission (KTC), the trade-remedy authority operating under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), issued a preliminary affirmative determination in its anti-dumping investigation of Chinese-origin zinc and zinc-alloy coated cold-rolled steel products (thickness <4.75mm; HS 7210/7212 and certain 7225/7226 codes), and recommended provisional anti-dumping duties of 22.34% (Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union), 26.28% (Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel), 33.67% (Winstone Development Ltd), and 25.75% (other Chinese suppliers). The duties remain in force pending a final determination expected around September 2026, with the Ministry of Economy and Finance to operationalise the rates by public notice. The investigation was petition-driven by Korean steelmakers (Dongkuk CM, KG Steel, SeAH CM) in November 2025, responding to a surge in Chinese galvanized cold-rolled imports following the US Section 232 50% steel tariff escalation that redirected Chinese supply to Korea and SE Asia.

On 23 February 2026 the Korea Trade Commission (KTC) at its 461st plenary meeting adopted a final affirmative anti-dumping determination against hot-rolled carbon and alloy steel (HRC) imports from China and Japan, recommending definitive five-year duties of 28.16–33.10% on Chinese-origin HRC and 31.58–33.57% on Japanese-origin HRC to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) for implementation via customs notification. The investigation was initiated in March 2024 on petition by Hyundai Steel, following December 2023 injury allegations, with provisional duties imposed in September 2025. KTC simultaneously recommended acceptance of price-undertaking commitments from three Japanese companies (including JFE Steel and Nippon Steel) and six Chinese companies (including Baosteel), allowing those exporters to avoid the definitive duties by maintaining minimum import-price levels; remaining non-participating exporters face the full duty rates under a five-year WTO ADA Article 11 sunset ending 2031.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) published Resolução 857 in the Diário Oficial da União on 23 February 2026, reducing definitive anti-dumping duties on non-oriented electrical steel (aço GNO, NCM 7225.19.00 and 7226.19.00) originating in China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Germany. The measure follows a public-interest evaluation (avaliação de interesse público) concluded by SECEX/DECOM, which found that applying the full investigation-recommended duty level would create steel supply shortfalls and net welfare losses of approximately US$2.19 million, given that sole domestic producer Aperam South America cannot meet total Brazilian demand. New specific duties — US$90/ton for major named Asian producers, US$132.50/ton for other Asian exporters, and US$166.32/ton for German producers — are set below the DECOM recommendation and remain in force for the remainder of the 5-year window established by Gecex 758 of 10 July 2025 (expiring ~July 2030).

The Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) issued Notification No. 02/2025-Customs (SG) dated 30 December 2025, imposing a definitive three-year safeguard duty on imports of "Non-Alloy and Alloy Steel Flat Products" classified under Customs Tariff headings 7208, 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7225 and 7226 (hot-rolled coils/sheets/plates, hot-rolled plate-mill plates, cold-rolled coils/sheets, metallic coated sheets including galvanneal and aluminium-zinc coated, and colour-coated coils/sheets). Duty rates are graduated: 12% ad valorem for 21 April 2025 – 20 April 2026, 11.5% for 21 April 2026 – 20 April 2027, and 11% for 21 April 2027 – 20 April 2028. The notification implements the final findings of the Director General (Trade Remedies) (DGTR notification 22/01/2024-DGTR dated 16 August 2025) which concluded that imports of subject goods rose from 2.293 mt in FY 2021-22 to 6.612 mt during the period of investigation, causing serious injury and threat of serious injury to the domestic industry. The definitive measure supersedes the provisional 200-day safeguard duty imposed at 12% ad valorem from 21 April 2025 by Notification 01/2025-Customs (SG); no safeguard duty applies for the interim period between expiry of the provisional duty (early November 2025) and the day preceding Gazette publication of the definitive notification. Imports from developing-country WTO members are exempt unless the share of any individual developing country exceeds 3% of total imports of the subject goods, or the collective share of developing countries exceeding 3% individually exceeds 9% — the China and Vietnam carve-outs from this exemption preserve full applicability of the duty to the dominant cheap-import sources.

The Türkiye Ministry of Trade's Imports General Directorate published Communiqué No. 2025/44 in Resmî Gazete on 27 December 2025, imposing a definitive flat-rate 3.95% ad valorem anti-dumping duty on imports of cold-rolled stainless flat steel (CRSS) originating in the People's Republic of China, covering 22 customs-tariff positions under HS headings 7219 and 7220. The duty runs for five years from the date of publication (sunset 27 December 2030). The parallel investigation track into Indonesian-origin CRSS was closed without measures — imports from Indonesia were determined to be at a negligible dumping margin and caused no material injury to the domestic industry. The investigation (initiated as Notice 2024/20, June 2024) was petitioned by the Turkish stainless-steel producer consortium (Posco Assan Stainless TST, Sandvik Karbosan, and ÇağdaşÇelik).

The UK Trade Remedies Authority initiated antidumping investigation AD0071 on 6 June 2025 into hot-rolled steel plate (flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, 600mm+ width, hot-rolled, not clad/plated/coated, not in coils, 4.75mm+ thickness) originating in South Korea, following an application by UK producer Spartan UK Ltd. The TRA found South Korean imports grew from ~14,000 tonnes in 2021 to over 40,000 tonnes the following year. In April 2026 the TRA published its Statement of Essential Facts proposing duties of 7.04%-22.27% on narrow plates (600mm-2500mm width) — its preferred option — or 5.98%-24.28% if applied to the full scope, after an Economic Interest Test found full-scope duties would harm UK downstream sectors (renewable energy, shipbuilding, defence) reliant on wider-plate imports.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/612 of 24 March 2025 amends the EU steel safeguard regime first imposed by Regulation (EU) 2019/159, materially tightening the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system that governs imports across 26 product categories of finished and semi-finished steel. The Commission cuts the annual liberalisation rate (the volume by which TRQs grow each year) from 1% to 0.1%, effectively freezing the in-quota volumes available to third-country exporters at near-current levels through the safeguard's expiry on 30 June 2026. The regulation also repeals the carry-over mechanism that previously allowed unused quarterly TRQ volumes to roll into the next quarter for product categories under significant import pressure, and eliminates the ability of exporting countries to access the residual (other-country) quota in the final quarter of each safeguard year for those categories. The latter change forecloses the route by which Chinese, Indian, Turkish, Korean and Vietnamese mills had increasingly back-filled into unused Russian and Belarusian quota allocations after the 2022 sanctions disruption. Most adjustments enter into force on 1 April 2025; the slower liberalisation pace and the carry-over removal in the most pressured categories take effect 1 July 2025. The measure is the headline trade-policy deliverable of the European Steel and Metals Action Plan unveiled by the Commission on 19 March 2025, and it is explicitly framed as a defensive response to (i) global overcapacity in Chinese steel and (ii) anticipated trade diversion into the EU after the United States reinstated universal 25% Section 232 steel/aluminum tariffs on 12 March 2025. Above-quota imports remain subject to the 25% out-of-quota duty inherited from the 2019 safeguard.