Investigation for remedial action in the form of a safeguard measure against the increased imports of certain flat-rolled products

The International Trade Administration Commission (“ITAC or the “Commission”) gazetted a notice of the initiation of an investigation for remedial action in the form of a safeguard against the increased imports of hot-rolled steel products on 23 February 2024.

The application was lodged by the South African Iron & Steel Institute (“SAISI” or “the Applicant”), an industry association, which applied on behalf of ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited (“AMSA”), being the major producer of the subject product in the Southern African Customs Union (“SACU”).

The Commission was provided with comments by the Applicant and interested parties.

The Commission considered all the relevant information available at its disposal, in particular, that related to unforeseen developments, surge of imports, serious injury and causality, and critical circumstances.

The Commission made a preliminary determination that:
• Events cited are regarded as unforeseen developments that led to the increased volume of imports;
• Surge in volume of imports is recent enough, sudden enough, sharp enough and significant enough;
• The SACU industry is suffering serious injury; and
• Although there are factors other than the imports that contributed to the injury, such as reduced demand in the steel market demand and lack of infrastructure investment, inputs costs, and energy supply and logistics constraints; these factors did not sufficiently detract from the causal link between the serious injury suffered by the Applicant and the surge in volumes of imports resulting from the unforeseen developments.

The Commission considered that there are critical circumstances where a delay in the imposition of provisional measure, would cause damage that would be difficult to repair and that these critical circumstances justify the imposition of provisional measures. The Commission, therefore, made a preliminary determination to request the Commissioner for South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) to impose a provisional measure in a form of a 9 percent ad valorem on imports of hot-rolled steel products for a period of 200 days, pending the finalization of the investigation.

The provisional measure is imposed against all countries except the developing countries identified, as the imports from each of these countries do not exceed 3 percent of the total volume of imports or collectively account for more than 9 percent of total imports. A notice to give effect to this decision, has been published in the Government Gazette on 05 July 2024.

Enquiries may be directed to: Mr. Zuko Ntsangani at email address zntsangani@itac.org.za, Ms. Charity Mudzwiri at email address cramaposa@itac.org.za and Mr. Brian Same at bsame@itac.org.za.
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Report 730

ISSUED BY THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE ADMINISTRATION COMMISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA