Three months ago, the European Union imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of flat stainless steel from China and Taiwan.

Now, several steelmakers from the US is seeking tariffs on American imports of the same products from China, India, Italy, South Korea, and Taiwan to shun the possible onslaught of cheap imports to the country.

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Behind the petition are steelmakers United States Steel Corp., Nucor Corp., Steel Dynamics Inc., ArcelorMittal USA, AK Steel Corp., and California Steel Industries.

The steelmakers said that the petition for imposing anti-dumping duties on the aforesaid countries came after continuous price decrease in the past months despite robust demand.

On the other hand, India has already imposed anti-dumping duties against flat stainless steel products coming from China and other Asian countries. The anti-dumping duties ranging from $180 to $316 per tonne will be effective until 2020.

Almost 40 percent of India's annual ore consumption (1 million tonnes) comes from China. The other sixty comes from other ore producers in the Asian region such as Taiwan, Malaysia, and South Korea. However, the country's economic ministry said that this large consumption has resulted to a severe material injury as most products from these countries are priced below fair market value.

"It's a welcome move and a necessary one to save the domestic industry which is at the suffering end," N.C. Mathur, president of the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association, told Reuters.

In order to protect the domestic steel industry, Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley said that there would be an increase in basic customs duty on steel to 15 per cent from 10 per cent. This, however, would not lead to any change in basic effective rates.

In contrast, the Chinese government is encouraging local steel company owners to retaliate by filing lawsuits against foreign entities trying to stop them from participating in the global commerce.

"We encourage Chinese steelmakers and related businesses to actively participate in countersuits, and protect their legitimate interests according to the World Trade Organization rules," China's commerce minister told The Wall Street Journal.

Stainless steel prices outlook

According to stainless steel market consulting firm MEPS, industry experts and market analysts are still divided on the current condition of and short-term outlook for the stainless steel market.

Sales to the automotive supply segment are consistently positive, while demand from the oil industry has remained weak since commodity values began to fall last year.

However, MEPS said that a brief recovery in LME nickel values the last two months helped alloy extras for grade 304 materials to climb again in June. Thus, there could be a price upturn for stainless steel in 2016.

In the same year, China is expected to purchase more nickel to support its growing stainless steel production. Nonetheless, since the ore prohibition in Indonesia is showing no signs of being lifted and supplies from the Philippines is fast approaching exhaustion, Chinese companies will continue to seek alternatives outside the region.

One of the prospects is Russian nickel company Amur Minerals Corporation (OTC:AMMCF), which has a projected nickel ore production of 90 million tons. Its shares rose by almost 20 percent last week after completing the £300,000 pre-production license payment required of it to cover the assignment of production rights for all recoverable metals at its Kun-Manie nickel reserve in Russia.

China's increasing demand for refined nickel is considered by some base metal observers as the main driver for its rising values. It will be supported by the ongoing Indonesian ore ban and the continuously decreasing global supplies outside the Asia-Pacific region.

For this year, analysts and market players see no price rebound for nickel. However, some nickel miners still hope for the emergence of a supply deficit in the short-to-medium term. According to them, if this happens before the year ends, there can be a modest upward trend in nickel values until the second quarter of 2016.

TagsAnti-dumping duties, Metal anti-dumping from US and India, China Faces Anti-Dumping Petitions, US steelmakers, Indonesian Ore Ban, base metals industry