European Commission doesn’t take into account arguments of Russian metallurgical companies against duties

The European Commission, the Russian Ministry of Economy and metallurgical companies have discussed the situation around the EU anti-dumping duties on Russian rolled metal and possible violations during the inspection, by results of which they were introduced. The companies have a lot of claims to the conclusions of the EC, including with regard to the behavior of its members who allegedly have explicitly declared their "hatred for Russia". But for a while, according to the Kommersant’s information, the Russian side hasn’t been able to seriously affect the situation, although the European officials have promised to "take into account" received objections and comments.

On Friday, consultation on the preliminary results of the anti-dumping investigation in respect of the supplies of Russian cold-rolled products in Europe took place in Brussels. The meeting was attended by representatives of the European Commission, Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation, NLMK and Severstal. Preliminary results of the investigation were published in February. As a result, the mode of "non-cooperation" was applied to Severstal and Novolipetsk Steel and temporary duties in the amount of 25.4% and 26.2%, respectively, were introduced. In late May, the European Commission increased the duty to 34.1% for Severstal and to 36.1% for NLMK and other companies. The only exception was Magnitogorsk metallurgical plant (MMK), for which the duty was reduced to 18.7%. The Commission’s report explains the increase in the duties with the 63.8% final dumping margin of Severstal and 68.3% of NLMK and others, besides MMK.