The Malaysia anti-dumping authorities have initiated a review of anti-dumping duties on carbon and alloy steel cold rolled coil from China, Korea and Vietnam. The review was requested by China Steel subsidiary CSC Steel because of what it believes is a substantial change in dumping margins, Kallanish notes.

The duties were initially imposed in 2016 (see table below). They apply to HS codes 720915, 720916.10, 720916.90, 720917.10, 720917.90, 720918.99, 722550.10 and 722550.90.

Over January-September this year, South Korea exported 135,503 tonnes of materials under these HS codes (to six digits) to Malaysia, up 14.9% year-on-year. China meanwhile exported 28,036t of these products over January-March (the latest period for which detailed data is available), up 40.4% y-o-y.

One reason for the increase was the appreciation of the Malaysian ringgit against the US dollar over 2017, a trend which has mostly reversed in 2018. At the start of 2017 the exchange rate was almost MYR 4.5/dollar, but this fell to a low of around MYR 3.86/dollar in March. The currency was last trading on 13 November at just under MYR 4.19/dollar.

Source: Malaysian Ministry of International Trade & Industry