UPDATE 2-EU steelmakers file new China imports complaint

(adds Mittal comments, background)

By William Schomberg and David Lawsky

BRUSSELS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - European steelmakers launched a new anti-dumping complaint over surging imports of steel from China on Tuesday, a day before a China-European Union summit dominated by growing trade friction.

The complaint over imports of wire rod used mainly in construction was also levelled against Turkey, the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (Eurofer) said.

Last month Eurofer asked the European Commission to impose anti-dumping duties on imports of stainless steel cold-rolled flat products from China, South Korea and Taiwan and on hot-dipped metallic coated sheet and strip from China.

European trade chief Peter Mandelson, who will take part in Wednesday's summit in Beijing, has warned he might take action if China does not address its barriers to EU businesses.

He has previously suggested he is sympathetic to the complaints of the European steelmakers.

Eurofer said wire rod imports from China and Turkey into the European Union rose more than 400 percent from 2004 to 2007.

"The root cause of these dramatic, market-distorting export surges is the economically irrational growth of steel capacities outpacing the growth of domestic steel consumption," Eurofer Director General Gordon Moffat said in a statement.

Growth in capacity in China and Turkey had been fuelled by subsidies and driven by "pervasive state intervention," he said.

China has previously denied any steel dumping.

Some EU engineering firms, which are big consumers of steel, are opposed to measures that would push up the price of imports.

Top EU monetary officials were in Beijing on Tuesday for pre-summit talks aimed at encouraging China to allow the yuan to appreciate against the euro to help ease trade tension.

MITTAL URGES CO2 ACTION

Also on Tuesday, Lakshmi Mittal, head of the world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS), said import duties should be used to penalise China for its greenhouse gas emissions.