The European Commission has put provisional antidumping duties in place on some stainless steel products from China, Indonesia and Taiwan after an investigation into low-price imports from the Asian countries, Reuters reported April 11, citing the official EU journal.

Hot-rolled stainless steel sheets and coils from Tsingshan Holding Group Co. Ltd.'s two Indonesian subsidiaries were assigned a duty rate of 17%, while imports from rival Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Co. Ltd. and three affiliates were assigned with the highest rate of 18.9%.

Other mainland China companies were hit with rates of 14.5% and 17.4%, while duties for imports from Taiwan were at a lower rate of 6% to 7.5%.

The new regulation is expected to restore fair trading conditions and will allow the European Union's industry to recover.

The commission launched its investigation into the matter in July 2018 following a complaint from the European Steel Association amid a drastic rise in imports after the United States' 25% steel import tariffs effectively closed off the American market.

According to the commission, imports from China, Indonesia and Taiwan into the EU surged 66% over the investigation period, which ended June 30, 2019, and have reached more than 30% of consumption in the free market.

The commission noted that the price of the imports undercut the EU's industry prices, with undercutting margins of 4.1% for Taiwan, 9.3% for China and 10.7% for Indonesia.

The newswire added that the EU has lodged a separate complaint to the World Trade Organization on Indonesia's bank of nickel ore exports from the beginning of 2020.

According to the commission, it has received responses to questionnaires from two stainless sheet and coil exporters in Indonesia owned by China's Tsingshan.

"Both exporting producers failed to provide a meaningful worldwide structure of the group in the questionnaire replies and during the verification visits," the commission said, noting that it has found that the companies paid for nickel ore more than 30% below the international market price.