Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau has gazetted recommendations by the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) on new import taxes for steel from China, Japan and Taiwan.

Steel imported from these countries is now subject to new import duties of 74.98%, while imports from Thailand are subject to duties of 20.32% for certain products, for a period of five years.

Itac in mid-2025 launched an investigation into the alleged dumping of certain steel products from China and surrounding countries.

The products included thin, flat-rolled steel sheets that are commonly used in construction, roofing and manufacturing.

Having brought the application for an investigation to Itac, primary steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) and steel fabricator Safal Steel alleged that a surge of these cheap imports was causing material injury to the steel industry across the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) by undercutting prices and threatening jobs and production.

With imports of steel products from China having surged 19-fold in the 2023/24 financial year, Itac introduced temporary safeguards in June 2025 to help curb these imports.

However, Itac felt it prudent to further curb “below fair value” prices and protect industrialisation in the region, particularly as AMSA has retrenched thousands of workers and idled some operations as a result of high electricity costs and an inability to compete with imports from China.

The new duties specifically apply to flat-rolled products or iron, non-alloy or other alloy steels of a width of 600 mm or more, whether in coils or not, including products cut-to-length and not further worked than hot-rolled.

The duties also apply to U-sections, I-sections and H-sections of iron or non-alloy steel, not further worked than hot-rolled, hot-drawn or extruded of a height of 80 mm or more – excluding H-sections of a height greater than 200 mm and equal angles of iron or non-alloy steel not further worked than hot-rolled, hot-drawn or extruded.

Itac cites in its final investigation concerns raised by interested parties about significant overcapacity of steel products in China, where producers are operating at a loss. This has led to declining real export prices and a surge in trade protection measures globally.

As traditional markets started closing or restricting access, excess steel was being diverted to more open markets such as Sacu, particularly South Africa, which only had a 10% duty historically and no additional trade remedies on the subject product – making it among the least protected markets globally.

For context demonstrating the magnitude of China’s steel production and how overcapacity occurs, China’s coated steel production in 2021 exceeded 65-million tonnes – which is more than 350 times the yearly demand in the whole Sacu region.