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)