EU sets tariffs on Chinese steel wind towers

A woman rides a scooter past a steel plant in Anyang
A woman rides a scooter past a steel plant in Anyang, Henan province, China, February 18, 2019. Picture taken February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

BRUSSELS, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The European Union will impose tariffs on imports of steel towers used for wind turbines from China on Friday after an investigation found they were being sold at artificially low prices.

The European Commission, which conducted the inquiry, has set duties ranging from 7.2% to 19.2%, with a rate of 14.4% applying to a subsidiary of Titan Wind Energy Suzhou Co Ltd (002531.SZ), the EU official journal said on Thursday.

The commission said the anti-dumping duties, which apply for five years, aimed to remedy damage caused to EU producers such as in Denmark and Spain.

The commission in its investigation, launched after a complaint by the European Wind Tower Association, took production costs in Mexico to determine a "normal" price for a tower and found that all Chinese prices were significantly lower.

It found that Chinese imports, some 80% of all steel tower imports into the European Union, increased their share of the EU market to 34% in the year from July 2019 compared with 25% in 2017. They also sold at a discount in a very price-sensitive market, the Commission said.

Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Leslie Adler

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