Commercial Information Circulars

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Ref : EIC 230/2/3/2/13

21 December 2015

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 1209/2015

European Union (EU) * : Registration of imports of high fatigue performance steel concrete reinforcement bars originating in the Mainland of China

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 329/2015 of 13 May 2015, the European Commission (the Commission) has published a regulation making the imports of high fatigue performance steel concrete reinforcement bars originating in the Mainland of China subject to registration for nine months from 19 December 2015. The regulation can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32015R2386&from=EN

DETAILS

2.The registration is initiated at the request of the European Steel Association (Eurofer, the complainant), representing more than 25% of the total production of high fatigue performance steel concrete reinforcement bars in the EU. The Commission considers that the complainant has provided sufficient evidence to justify the registration, which will serve to ensuring that,should the anti-dumping investigation sinitiated in April 2015 result in findings leading to the imposition of anti-dumping duties, those duties can, if the necessary conditions are fulfilled, be levied retroactively on the registered imports.

3.Salient points of the regulationare set out below-

(a) Date of Publication of the Regulation	:	18 December 2015
(b) Product Coverage	:	High fatigue performance iron or steel concrete reinforcing bars and rods (sometimes referred to as HFP Rebars) made of iron, non-alloy steel or alloy steel (but excluding of stainless steel, high-speed steel and silico-manganese steel), not further worked than hot-rolled, but including those twisted after rolling; these bars and rods contain indentations, ribs, grooves or other deformations produced during the rolling process or are twisted after rolling. The key characteristic of high fatigue performance is the ability to endure repeated stress without breaking and, specifically, the ability to resist in excess of 4.5 million fatigue cycles using a stress ratio (min/max) of 0.2 and a stress range exceeding 150 MPa, currently falling within CN codes ex 7214 20 00, ex 7228 30 20, ex 7228 30 41, ex 7228 30 49, ex 7228 30 61, ex 7228 30 69, ex 7228 30 70 and ex 7228 30 89. These CN codes are given for information onlyand have no binding effect on the classification of the product.
(c) Effective Date	:	19 December 2015
(d) Duration	:	Nine months
(e) Time Limit for Making Requests	:	All interested parties are invited to make their views known in writing, to provide supporting evidence, or to request with reasons to be heard in writing within 20 days from 18 December 2015.

BACKGROUND

4.The Commission has initiated an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of high fatigue performance steel concrete reinforcement bars originating in the Mainland of China at the request of the complainant in April 2015.

ENQUIRIES

5.For enquiries concerning the contents of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Jessica MAK)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU member countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.