RI scraps antidumping duty on steel pipes

RI scraps antidumping duty on steel pipes

JAKARTA (JP): Government has decided to remove the antidumping
duty imposed on welded steel pipe imports from China, Japan,
South Korea and Singapore.

The decision was made after the Indonesian Antidumping
Committee (KADI) found evidence that petitioners for the duty had
also used "dumped" products, the Ministry of Finance said in a
statement.

"This has reduced the amount of locally made welded steel
pipes in the local market to below 25 percent, the minimum limit
set for local producers to request antidumping duty be imposed,"
the ministry said.

The ministry imposed temporary antidumping duty of up to 81
percent on welded steel pipe imports in July last year after KADI
found strong evidence that steel producers from China, Japan,
South Korea and Singapore sold their steel products here below
their production costs.

The evidence was reportedly found in an investigation by KADI
in response to complaints lodged in 1999 by several local pipe
producers, including PT South East Asia Pipe Industries, PT KHI
Pipe Industries and PT Bumi Karya Steel, as well as the
Indonesian Association of Steel Pipe Producers (Gapipa).

The antidumping measure had been effective since January.

Indonesia imported 259,235 tons of steel pipe last year to
fulfill domestic demand, which was 437,753 tons in 1999.

Meanwhile the ministry also announced on Tuesday that it had
imposed up to 153 percent temporary antidumping import duty on
liquefied sorbitol (D-Glucitol) products from European Union
companies to protect local companies from further loss due to
dumping practices.

"The measure was taken after KADI found preliminary evidence
of liquefied sorbitol dumping here," he said. (03)