South Africa has launched a safeguard investigation into imports of carbon and alloy steel cold rolled flat products. This follows an application by the South African Iron and Steel Institute (Saisi) on behalf of ArcelorMittal South Africa.

The applicant’s claim is that the subject product is being imported into the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) market in increasing tonnages so as to cause “…serious injury to the SACU industry.” The South Africa delegation says this in a WTO notification seen by Kallanish.

The products under investigation fall under HS codes 7209.15, 7209.16, 7209.17, 7209.18, 7225.50 and 7226.92, while the investigation period is 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2015.

The latest investigation follows South Africa’s decision last month not to impose a preliminary safeguard duty on imports of carbon and alloy steel hot rolled coil and plate (see Kallanish 1 August). The final determination is expected at the end of October.

South African imports of cold rolled sheet totalled 31,679 tonnes and cold rolled strip 8,089t in January-June 2016, compared to full-year 2015 figures of 61,672t and 14,890t respectively, according to Saisi.