To the movement to file an antidumping complaint on grain oriented electrical steel sheets against imported products from plural countries including Japan and Russia by European GO sheet mills keeping in step, the Japanese mills give much attention.

Demand for GO electrical sheets within the European region is about 300,000 tonnes a year. Of these, import products accounted for 150,000 tonnes. Its annual import was 50,000 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes from Japan, 10,000 tonnes to 15,000 tonnes from Korea, 5,000 tonnes from China, 50,000 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes from Russia and 30,000 tonnes or so from the USA which is said to have lessened at present.

In that region, manufacturers of GO electrical sheets are ThyssenKrupp in Germany and France, ArcelorMittal in Czech, Tata Corus in the UK, some mill in Poland or so that have produced 150,000 tonnes a year in total. The production capacity of them is not known.

There had been a case for such movement to file an AD complaint by European mills in the past. However, European mills had not kept in step and could not have been united under the European Iron & Steel Association. However, they seem to have kept in step this time.

A target country of an AD case is said to have been Russia in the past. It is because Russia had exported CGO (conventional GO) electrical sheets for general use to that region competing with European mills. The case of this time involves not only Russia but also Asian producing countries.

According to a view of the Japanese mills, quality of GO electrical sheets of European mills is never excellent. Their products are mainly for general use.

Accordingly, if Japan, Korea and so on are shut out, major customers like heavy electric machinery produces in that region will become hard to get necessary GO electrical sheets to high grades. They are thought to continue to purchase GO electrical sheets from Japan and so on for the time being even if they pay AD duties but it is an interesting case to what extent European mills fend off dissatisfaction of customers.