Japanese steel makers plead against import safeguards

MANILA, Philippines - Four Japanese steel manufacturers are asking the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to exclude specialized galvanized steel coils and sheets used by passenger car, motorcycle and appliance manufacturers from a DTI safeguards investigation, citing that such products have no counterparts in the local market.

In a joint statement of JFE Steel Corp., Kobe Steel, Ltd., Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp., and Nisshin Steel Co. Ltd.,  submitted for the DTI’s public consultation for the safeguard investigation, the groups said specialized galvanized steel products such as molten aluminimum plated sheet; galvannealed steel sheet; alloy plated with molten zinc, aluminuminum, and magnesium; as well as chromate-free galvanized iron (GI) should be excluded from the scope of the present investigation of imported GI and pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI) sheets and coils.

The four firms argued that such products do not compete, and are not substitutable with local galvanizers’ products.

“Therefore, imposing safeguard measures on the above-mentioned materials will not address the applicant’s concerns, but would instead likely bring about the shortage of the materials in the Philippine market because – and we cannot emphasize this enough – these materials have no counterparts and have no substitutes among the locally-produced GI and PPGI,” the firms said.

The firms stress that even if the importation of these materials are restricted, their customers such as passenger car, motorcycle and appliance makers would not likely begin using the locally-produced GI and PPGI which do not fit their needs.

“Simply put, our target users in the Philippines require specific types of galvanized steel products with specifications and attributes that are not found in locally-manufactured GI and PPGI,” the firms said.

The firms said the DTI should identify and focus only on imports that are in fact injuring and threatening the viability of the local GI and PPGI manufacturing industry.

“Our products are not among them,” the firms said.

The DTI is conducting a preliminary investigation on GI and PPGI sheets and coils following a petition filed by Puyat Steel Corp. to impose safeguard measure on imports.

In its petition, Puyat Steel claimed imports have caused serious injury to the domestic industry, citing declining market share, production sales, capacity utilization, productivity, profitability, price suppression and undercutting.

Safeguard measures refer to higher duties which a country could impose on imported goods to provide relief to domestic industries.

These measures are applied when it is found that there is increased imports of the commodity and when the local industry is threatened by the increase in purchases of such product from other countries.

Based on the result of the preliminary investigation, the DTI can forward the case to the Tariff Commission, which will then conduct its formal investigation on the petition.

DTI’s Bureau of Import Services assistant director Sherwin Prose Castaneda said in an interview all parties are given until December 2 to submit their position paper on Puyat Steel’s petition.