The European Commission today announced that Turkish hot-rolled coil (HRC) imports will be subject to registration, which will enable any anti-dumping duties to be applied retroactively.

The document, dated 12 November, said that registration will start from the day after publication in the official journal of the EC. Interested parties are given 21 days to comment on the EC’s notice.

European steel association Eurofer in September submitted a request for registration, in which it estimated an alleged dumping margin of 4-8pc. “The amount of possible future liability can be estimated at the level of the highest dumping margin estimated on the basis of the complaint, namely 8pc as a proportion of the cif import value of the product concerned.”

Turkish mills were this week offering at $550-560/t fob, with some of them saying they had even sold at this level to south Europe. With freight estimated at $25-30/t to Italy, which means with today’s exchange rate at just under €485/t cif. With a 8pc maximum duty, this equates to almost €525/t cif. Sell-side participants up to yesterday were receiving bids at €500/t cpt for Italian HRC, which means that Turkish material is far above the domestic level, especially when factoring in inland transportation costs.

An Italian pipe producer was possibly booking at €470/t cif, which still equates to nearly €510/t cif, unless the buyer is working with an assumption of a lower duty, or has agreed to share any duty level with the seller, which market participants have suggested as a possibility. A Turkish mill yesterday said there have been no duty sharing arrangements with European buyers.