The European Union’s General Court has dismissed an appeal by Turkish steel producer Ozkan Demir Celik against the European Commission’s definitive 13.6pct anti-dumping duty on its exports of steel bulb flats to the EU.
The case concerns the EU anti-dumping investigation into imports of steel bulb flats from China and Turkey. The investigation covered October 2021-September 2022, while the injury analysis covered January 2019-September 2022. The Commission initially imposed a provisional 13.6pct duty on Ozkan Demir Celik’s EU exports in July 2023 before confirming the same rate as a definitive measure in January 2024.
Ozkan Demir Celik challenged the Commission’s methodology, particularly its approach to currency conversion, determination of the date of sale and calculation of the dumping margin. The company argued that a quarterly rather than annual approach should have been used, citing fluctuations in production costs and prices, inflation, depreciation of the Turkish currency and differences in the timing of domestic and export sales.
The court rejected the arguments, finding that the Commission had sufficiently justified using the purchase order date for currency conversion. It also upheld the use of annual weighted-average costs and dumping calculations, concluding that Ozkan Demir Celik had not demonstrated that a quarterly methodology was necessary for a fair comparison or would materially change the dumping assessment.
The General Court therefore dismissed the action in its entirety and ordered Ozkan Demir Celik to bear its own costs and those incurred by the European Commission.
Ozkan Demir Celik (Ozkan Steel) produces non-alloy steel bulb flats and other hot-rolled steel profiles for sectors including shipbuilding, oil and gas, mining and infrastructure. Established in 1953 and based in İzmir-Aliaga, the company has annual crude steel melting capacity of around 1-1.2 mln tons and rolling capacity of about 700,000 tons.