China to impose import duties on electrical steel from EU

China said Friday it would impose import deposits of up to 46 percent on flat-rolled electrical steel products from the European Union, as its domestic producers face growing financial pressure.

China’s commerce ministry said that it will levy anti-dumping duties on imports of Grain Oriented Flat-rolled Electrical Steel (GOES) from Japan, the South Korea and the European Union.

Importers will pay deposits ranging from 14.5 percent to 46.3 percent, af- ter an investigation showed the regions were guilty of dumping which damages domestic Chinese industry, the ministry added in a post on its website.

The announcement came as Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron held crisis talks to salvage Britain’s steel industry after Indian giant Tata Steel said it was putting its business in the country up for sale, threatening 15,000 jobs.

Tata’s decision notably puts at risk Britain’s biggest steel plant at Port Talbot in the former industrial heartland of south Wales. The facility is Wales’ biggest single employer and closure would have a devastating impact on the local economy.

The Port Talbot plant reportedly produced grain-oriented flat-rolled steel.

China imported about 1.5 million tonnes of steel from the EU in 2014, and exported about 6.5 million tonnes of its steel to the EU, according to the World Steel Association. (AFP)