Kuala Lumpur High Court dismisses challenge to steel safeguard duty
The Edge Financial Daily reported that the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday dismissed a judicial review application in relation to the safeguard duties imposed from April last year on imported steel wire rods (SWR) and deformed bar in coils (DBIC). The decision yesterday was delivered verbally by High Court Justice Azizah Nawawi on petition filed by the Steel Wire Association of Malaysia (SWAM) last year. SWAM had named the international trade and industry ministry (Miti) as the responding party to its application.
Miti initiated two parallel investigations in May 2016 following petitions by members of the Malaysia Steel Association (MSA), representing the upstream steel industry players. The petitioning companies were Ann Joo Steel Bhd, Southern Steel Bhd, Malaysia Steel Works (KL) Bhd and Lion Industries Corp Bhd’s subsidiaries Amsteel Mills Sdn Bhd and Antara Steel Mills Sdn Bhd. MSA and the petitioning companies were also joined as party to the proceedings and they were represented by Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill. Jason Teoh & Partners represented SWAM, while Miti was represented by the Attorney-General's Chambers. The petitioners had sought safeguard protection as they claimed that surging imports of steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) by SWR and DBIC, between Oct 1, 2012 and Sept 30, 2015, had caused injury to the domestic industry. According to the petitioning companies, which collectively represented 73.4% of local rebar output and 100% of local SWR and DBIC production at the time, this caused them to lose market share, leading to downsizing and operational scale backs.
For rebar, the duties for rebar began at 13.42% from April 14, 2017 to April 13, 2018. The rate lowers to 12.27% in the second year up to April 13, 2019 and reduces further to 11.1% between April 14, 2019 and April 13, 2020. For SWR and DBIC, the duties kicked in from April 15, 2017 at 13.9% for the first year. The rate reduces to 12.9% from April 15, 2018 to April 14, 2019 and subsequently falls to 11.9% between April 15, 2019 and April 14, 2020.
The application is the second such challenge under the Safeguards Act 2006 in as many years. The first was filed by Megasteel Sdn Bhd in 2016 after the government declined its petition for safeguard protection against hot-rolled coil imports. It was unsuccessful.
Source : The Edge Financial Daily