Chinese, Indonesian, Taiwanese flat-rolled steel dumped into local market: trade commission

South Korea's trade commission on Thursday made a preliminary ruling that steelmakers of China, Indonesia and Taiwan dumped their flat-rolled steel products into the South Korean market.

Under the preliminary decision, South Korea plans to slap an anti-dumping tariff of 49.04 percent on those imported from China, according to the Korea Trade Commission. The tariff for those from Indonesia will be set at 29.68 percent, and around 9.5 percent for Taiwanese suppliers.

The investigation came after South Korea's top steelmaker POSCO filed a complaint with the commission in July last year, arguing that flat-rolled steel products were being dumped into the local market.

"We have reached a conclusion that the damage on the local industry due to the flat-rolled steel products being imported to South Korea with price tags below the normal level is not small," the commission said.

The flat-rolled stainless steel products are applied to a wide scope of products from automobiles and ships to medical instruments.

The commission plans to carry out another round of investigation over the next three months, which can be extended by another two-month period before deciding to actually impose anti-dumping tariffs.

The final ruling is expected to be delivered in July.

The South Korean market for the products was estimated at around 4 trillion won (US$3.61 billion), or 2 million tons. The domestically produced volume accounts for roughly 40 percent.