UK Steel undecided over Turkey HRC case

UK Steel has not decided whether it will request an anti-dumping investigation into Turkish hot-rolled coil (HRC).

The current EU case cannot be rolled over as duties, should dumping be proven, will become payable after the end of the UK's Brexit transition period.

Turkey is subject to the UK's own safeguard, with a duty-free quota of 23,602t for January-March and 23,864t for April-June: countries that exhaust their own individual quotas can use no more than 70pc of the residual quota, of 46,544t, in April-June.

UK Steel will be preoccupied with the transition review of the rolled over European measures, which finish at the end of June, but a source said that it is "likely" the association will call for the opening of a UK investigation into Turkey.

Some traders have not availed themselves of the ability to sell Turkish tonnage into the UK for the first quarter, despite a period of competitive pricing where larger southern European buyers ran the risk of purchasing potentially taxed material. The window of opportunity was relatively short, however, with Turkish lead times and prices climbing steeply in recent weeks: Argus' fob Turkey HRC assessment jumped from $510/t on 9 October to $605/t on 20 November.

By Colin Richardson