Brussels, 29 October 2008                                    
Orgalime was ‘pleasantly surprised’ to read in the “Steel Business Bulletin” Eurofer’s reaction ahead of the official preliminary findings due to be announced on the 1 November, that there will be no imposition of provisional dumping duties on stainless steel imports from China, South Korea and Taiwan.
 
“While it is strange that this comment should have been made ahead of the official announcement on 1 November, we are confident that it will not influence the final Commission decision. We firmly believe eventual dumping duties on stainless steel, either provisional or final, would be completely unjustified”  said Adrian Harris,  Secretary General of Orgalime, the European engineering industries association, “Orgalime is upset by the push by a limited number of steel producers to
ransom their major customers, the engineering industries, by trying to hinder competition for stainless steel on the EU’s market at a time when once again the EU’s steel prices are well above those in the rest of the world.  We consider access to our raw materials inputs as essential for the pursuit of our activities in the European Union under reasonable conditions“.
 
Orgalime notes that, at a time of tight supply of raw materials for some engineering sectors and in spite of the present economic situation, major steel producers are shutting down production capacities in Europe seemingly with the intention of maintaining high prices and therefore the differential with the rest of the world.
 
“Access to inputs such as stainless steel is a key issue for the competitiveness of many companies, we must therefore stay focussed to ensure that not only the official decision expected early November 2008 confirms that no provisional duties will be imposed but also that this position is not overturned when the final decision is taken in April 2009” he added.
 
Ends
Orgalime, the European Engineering Industries Association, speaks for 35 trade federations representing some 130,000 companies  in the mechanical, electrical, electronic, metalworking & metal articles industries  of 23 European countries. The industry employs some 10.9 million people in the EU and in 2007 accounted for some €1,813 billion of annual output. The industry not only represents more than one quarter of the output of manufactured products but also a third of the manufactured exports of the European Union.