Govt to probe dumping of coils by 3 countries

PETALING JAYA: The government has initiated an investigation on imports of hot-rolled coils (HRC), chequered coils and pickled and oiled (P&O) coils from China, Indonesia and Korea upon receiving a petition for the imposition of anti-dumping duty from a domestic producer on May 20, 2014.
The petitioner alleges that imports of HRC, chequered Coils and P&O coils originating in or exported from China, Indonesia and Korea are being dumped into Malaysia at a price much lower than the price in the domestic market of the alleged countries, which it claims, has caused material injury to the domestic industry in Malaysia.
The petitioner further claims that the imports from the alleged countries have increased in terms of absolute quantity. As a result, the petitioner had suffered material injury, among others, price depression, price suppression, loss of market share, reduction in domestic sales, decline in profitability and low return on investment.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) said in a statement on its website yesterday, a preliminary determination will be made within 120 days from the date of initiation. If the preliminary determination is affirmative, the government may impose a preliminary anti-dumping duty at the rate that is necessary to prevent further injury.
MITI has provided a set of questionnaires in relation to this investigation.
All interested parties (importers, foreign producers, exporters and associations) may request for the questionnaires no later than July 27, 2014.
Interested parties are also invited to make their views known in writing, in particular by replying to the questionnaires with supporting evidence to MITI on or before July 24 2014. In the event of no additional information is received within the specified period, the government may make its preliminary findings based on the available facts.