Anti-dumping and Impact on Stainless Steel Products from China

The global manufacturing PMI was 48.7% in September 2023, which has risen for the past three months but is still below 50%.
The PMI data suggests that global manufacturing is growing, but the economy remains weak, and demand is low.

China’s exporting order index is still at a low level but has risen for two months on a year-on-year basis, showing signs of easing downward pressure on Chinese export demand.

Customs data

According to China Customs data, statistics show that in 2023, China’s stainless steel exports are relatively stable, with monthly exports of about 350,000 tons, and the January-September monthly average is lower than the average level of the same period in the previous two years. 2023 January-September, the cumulative volume of domestic stainless steel exports was about 3,108,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 356,000 tons, or a reduction of 10.3%.

Europe, the United States, and other major markets for stainless steel consumption are affected by inflationary pressures, high interest rates, and other factors, resulting in weakened investment and consumption momentum, and steel consumption declined in most regions.

According to statistics, from January to September 2023, the cumulative volume of domestic stainless steel exported to the EU is about 106,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 262,000 tons, or 71.2%; the cumulative volume exported to the U.S. is about 66,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 29,000 tons, or 30.2%.

In addition to facing the pressure of global stainless steel demand contraction, overseas countries on China’s trade barriers is also a significant cause of the decline in China’s stainless steel exports.

To protect the interests of the local stainless steel enterprises, Europe and the United States set up higher barriers for importing stainless steel products.
Secondly, due to India’s domestic demand for stainless steel increased, China’s exports to India’s stainless steel volume is at an all-time high; for this reason, India has also opened the Chinese stainless steel related products anti-dumping/countervailing investigations and even levied a tax on some of the products.

As of October 24, 2023, there were about 12 foreign anti-dumping and countervailing investigations or rulings initiated on Chinese stainless steel products. The varieties involved include cold rolled stainless steel sheet and coil, cold rolled seamless stainless steel pipe, welded stainless steel pipe, hot rolled stainless steel sheet, and coil, stainless steel pipe butt weldments, stainless steel flanges, stainless steel washing tanks, stainless steel containers, stainless steel drums and so on.

Specifically as follows: