Dubai: A steel industry group will ask Arab nations next month to impose a duty of up to 20 per cent on imports that constitute dumping.
The Arab Iron and Steel Union (AISU) says it has a buy-in on this proposal from about 12 Arab nations including Sudan, Libya, Algeria, Morocco and the six Gulf Cooperation Council states.
"Everybody is breaking WTO [World Trade Organisation] regulations, but they want to impose the regulations on us," AISU president Dr Hilal Hussain Al Tuwairqi said yesterday.
"[Developed nations] have closed their countries for a hundred years. Now, when we are trying to develop our economies for our people, they give us WTO," Al Tuwairqi, who is also chairman of the Saudi conglomerate Al Tuwairqi Holding, told an iron and steel conference in Dubai.
"We are going to tell the Arab world not to buy imported steel. Traders who continue to import will be left sitting on piles and piles of unsold steel," he said in an impassioned speech. The AISU will make a strong pitch for anti-dumping duties on steel products at an Arab summit in Sharm Al Shaikh, Egypt, next month, Al Tuwairqi said.
Middle East steel production increased by 18 per cent this year compared to 2009, but demand in the region remains below 2009's already depressed level, according to Metal Bulletin research.
Although the Middle East will produce 25 million metric tonnes of steel next year, it will continue to be a net importer, leaving it vulnerable to dumping activity.
Khalid Al Qaderi, chairman and managing director of Bahrain-based United Stainless Steel Company, said it was important to face down competition from nations that dump goods on other nations at unsustainable prices.
"At the same time, we should strive to keep becoming more competitive in terms of pricing and costs," Al Qaderi said.
Sharad Mahendra, vice-president at JSW Steel, which aims to be India's largest producer of steel products in three years, said the South Asian nation faced a similar problem with cheap metal being dumped there by global producers when the consuming markets in the West dried up due to the global economic crisis.
"We can feel your pain and understand your anger," Mahendra said. "India exports barely any steel products to the Middle East — trade is mostly in value-added products — but we would support any anti-dumping move."
