At the request of the ArcelorMittal company, Mexico initiated an anti-dumping investigation on imports of carbon and alloy steel slab from Brazil and Russia.
In the trade of this product, the importers involved are: Ternium México, Altos Hornos de México and Grupo Acerero, while the exporters are Ternium Procurement, Arcelormittal Tubarão / Arcelormittal Brasil, Steelinvest and SteelInvest Group.
Mexico imported the products covered in the investigation for a total of 244 million dollars in the first seven months of 2020.
ArcelorMittal is the only national producer of steel slab similar to the one investigated that markets this product.
The other two companies that manufacture slab in Mexico (AHMSA and Ternium) are companies in the steel industry that use it to manufacture higher value-added products and supply, in turn, the construction, automotive and household appliances sectors, among others.
Likewise, these companies are the main consumers of steel slab, since their production is not always sufficient to meet their demand, so they import this product from various sources, or they acquire it from the company requesting the investigation.
ArcelorMittal indicated that due to the structure of the steel slab market, consumers have a strong influence on the prices of this product.
ArcelorMittal
The applicant company proposed as the investigated period from January 1 to December 31, 2019 and as a damage analysis period from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019.
Regarding the behavior of the national steel slab market, the Apparent National Consumption (CNA), calculated as national production plus imports, minus exports, decreased 4.2% during the analyzed period; decreased 10% in 2018 and increased 6.4% in the investigated period.
ArcelorMittal stated that the steel slab is a rectangular section product with a thickness between 200 and 250 millimeters, width between 750 and 2,520 millimeters and length between 4,800 and 12,500 millimeters.
The product is manufactured from carbon steel and alloy steel, which contain the following elements: carbon, manganese, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, copper, aluminum and boron.
