EU makes 10,175t of Egypt HRC available in quota

The European Commission has made 10,175t of Egyptian hot-rolled coil (HRC) available to importers in the bloc, after controls by a member state showed some volumes put forward for customs clearance were "erroneous".

The quota was originally exhausted on 1 July, and customs figures showed that 185,208t of Egyptian HRC was filed for clearance by 8 July, all of which should have been subject to a prorated safeguard duty of 5.85pc. The quota for the country was 141,849t, which means that 53,534t was unable to clear customs, in which case no duty would be payable on Egyptian material.

The commission said that the next allocation will take place on 12 August, "in order to give enough time to member states to send drawing requests that didn't benefit the quota".

Market participants were perplexed by the development, and expect further clarity in the coming days. All other HRC ‘other countries' quotas remain exhausted. About 348,809t was available in the general ‘other countries' quota to the benefit of Australia, Switzerland, the US, Libya and Canada — the latter three have so far imported a total of 0t.

Market participants largely expect that the member state cancelling some clearances will be Italy, which offers importers the chance to change their mind on clearance if duties are payable.

Buyers in other member states have questioned whether it is fair for Italy to allow this option, when the majority of other states do not. The Belgian customs authority has actually complained to the commission about Italy's clawback option, questioning its legality, but has not received any response.

The commission says any member state can adopt the clawback mechanism, but not all have decided to.

By Lora Stoyanova and Colin Richardson