Latest News on Stainless Steel Industry-2025.6.30

South Korea imposes 21.62% anti-dumping duty on stainless steel plates imported from China!

On June 26, the South Korean government finalized the imposition of 21.62% anti-dumping duty on stainless steel plates imported from China.

The Trade Commission of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Ministry of Industry) of South Korea stated on the 26th that after conducting an anti-dumping investigation on stainless steel plates imported from China, the Trade Commission determined that there was dumping of stainless steel plates imported from China, causing substantial losses to the domestic industry, and decided to recommend to the Minister of Planning and Finance (Ministry of Finance) to impose 21.62% anti-dumping duty for a period of 5 years.

According to the South Korean anti-dumping duty collection system, the Trade Commission of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce recommends the Ministry of Finance to impose anti-dumping duties after investigation, and the Ministry of Finance will eventually implement it.

It is reported that DKC, a South Korean stainless steel manufacturer, filed a complaint to the Trade Commission last June to impose anti-dumping duties, claiming that there was dumping of stainless steel plates imported from China, causing losses to the company.

The Trade Commission conducted a preliminary investigation on this, preliminarily determined that there was dumping, and recommended that the Ministry of Finance impose a temporary anti-dumping duty. As a result, the South Korean Ministry of Finance has imposed a temporary anti-dumping duty of 21.62% on it since March this year.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance is imposing a temporary anti-dumping duty of up to 38.02% on carbon steel plates and hot-rolled steel plates imported from China, and a temporary anti-dumping duty of 15.15%-33.97% on sodium dithionite imported from China.

India's BIS traceability certification has increased, and stainless steel exports have encountered a new "cold wave"

According to comprehensive media reports on June 29, 2025, India has suddenly upgraded its BIS certification rules recently, forcing certification to be traced back to upstream raw material suppliers. The new regulations instantly froze Taiwan's orders to India in June, and even caused China's mainland stainless steel exports to suffer a "halved year-on-year" collapse-the export volume in May plummeted 54% compared with the same period last year. This new "cold wave" caused by the sudden policy change is sweeping the Asian stainless steel supply chain.

New regulations exacerbate cold wave, causing "cliff-like decline" in stainless steel exports to India

According to Chinese customs data, in January 2024, stainless steel exports to India reached 73,024 tons (a single-month historical high), but continued to be under pressure thereafter. By May 2025, it dropped sharply to 17,747 tons, a 54% drop from May 2024 (38,669 tons), and the scale of shrinkage far exceeded normal market fluctuations.

Although it rebounded slightly to 17,740 tons in January 2025, the new raw material traceability regulations implemented by India completely stifled the recovery momentum. Behind the "halved" export volume is the cruel reality that the BIS certification barrier has been upgraded from single-link certification to full-chain traceability.

The supply chain is "choked" and exports in Asia have been frozen in a chain

India requires stainless steel finished products and all upstream raw material suppliers to obtain BIS certification, which directly hits China as the world's core stainless steel raw material supply base.

According to Taiwanese media, Taiwan's steel orders to India were frozen in June, mainly because the mainland raw material suppliers it relied on could not meet the traceability certification.

Taiwan's exports of stainless steel plates to India dropped sharply from 24,414 tons in 2023 to 6,802 tons in 2024 (-72%); although it rebounded to 7,368 tons from January to May 2025 (2,648 tons in May alone), the new regulations in June instantly wiped out the increase.

After Korean companies were blocked from exporting to India, they turned their steel products to the Chinese mainland and Southeast Asian markets and sold them at low prices, exacerbating regional competitive pressure.

The triple dilemma and the impact of the new cold wave far exceeded expectations

A large number of steel orders from Chinese mainland steel mills to India and export products processed by Taiwanese companies using mainland raw materials were stranded in warehouses, resulting in a continuous increase in capital and storage costs.

The core of the problem lies in the BIS certification system that India has enforced.The certification requires covering the entire industrial chain from mining to rolling, and its time and cost far exceed the traditional single-link certification. More importantly, India has artificially set up high barriers with obvious bias and targeting, causing the certification process to come to a standstill.

Market confidence has been severely frustrated, and coupled with the high risks brought by the policy surprise, the willingness of enterprises to accept new orders from India has dropped sharply. Some companies have suspended negotiations on new orders from India and turned their excess production capacity to domestic sales or third-country markets, further intensifying internal competition in related markets.

India's mandatory tracing of BIS certification to the raw material link is actually a "precise sniper" on the imported stainless steel supply chain.

As the country most affected, China not only faces a cliff-like decline in exports directly to India, but also bears the transmission cost of the chain freeze of the supply chain due to its regional raw material hub status.

In the short term, the new regulations have triggered three major crises: order blockage, inventory backlog and regional price war; in the long term, the threshold for China's stainless steel exports to India has been permanently raised. When Chinese steel mills and upstream suppliers are deeply trapped in the certification dilemma, the Asian stainless steel trade pattern is being forced to accelerate reconstruction.

US tariffs trigger trade diversion, EU stainless steel imports soar by more than 1,000%

Comprehensive media reported on June 28, 2025 that the first trade monitoring report released by the European Commission in June 2025 showed that EU steel imports have increased sharply since the beginning of 2025, mainly due to the redirection of trade flows after the US imposed tariffs.

Stainless steel imports soared by more than 1,000%, and prices plummeted by nearly 90%. The production of alloy steel bars increased by 222%, and prices fell by 55%.

The EU warned that the "trade diversion" effect is getting bigger as goods bypass the United States to enter Europe, especially goods from China.

While steel has been the most affected, the European Commission pointed out that the production of metals, machinery and chemicals has increased significantly. Experts say the broader economic impact remains limited for now.