Saudi Arabia opens anti-dumping probe into steel sections from China

Saudi Arabia has opened an anti-dumping investigation into hot-rolled structural steel sections from China and Türkiye. The General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT) published Notice No. 15 on 9 November 2026, opening case AD-26-3 at the request of United Steel Company (Saudi Steel). According to GAFT, the company accounts for 71% of Saudi output of the like product. The complaint was accepted on 8 September, and the governments of both countries were notified of it on 22 September.

The case covers H- and I-sections, wide-flange (W) sections, universal beams (UB), channels (UPN/UPE), equal angles up to 220 mm high and flat bars up to 300 mm wide, used as load-bearing parts in construction, infrastructure and industry. For the initiation, GAFT took 10 Saudi tariff codes under headings 7216.21, 7216.31, 7216.32, 7216.33 and 7216.40. The complaint also cited codes under 7216.50, 7228.70, 7308.10 and 7308.90, which were left off that list.

In 2025, China supplied 85% of Saudi imports of these products and Türkiye 10.5%, according to Saudi customs data cited in the notice. The investigated imports from the two countries were 19,149 tonnes in 2022, 71,892 t in 2023, 75,654 t in 2024 and 136,667 t in 2025. Over the same period, the complainant’s market-share index fell to 83 (2022 = 100), while the index for the investigated imports rose to 455.

For China, the complaint compared the export price, built from the CIF value of 2025 imports and adjusted back to ex-works, with selling prices in the Chinese market taken from a website that tracks domestic prices. For Türkiye, it used Turkish export prices to Cyprus. GAFT says the comparison points to a dumping margin of at least 2%, enough to open the case; the notice does not give the exact figure.

The dumping period runs from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, and the injury period from 1 January 2023 to 31 March 2026. Exporters, foreign producers, importers, associations and governments have 15 days from the notice to register as interested parties, with a power of attorney and an undertaking. The questionnaires, including one for foreign producers and exporters and a sampling form, are on GAFT’s website, and replies are due 37 days after the notice is sent, with a possible extension of up to 10 days. The investigation should end within 12 months, extendable to 18.

The case comes as Chinese steel is cheap at home: the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) said on 30 October that the CSPI price index averaged its lowest level for the period in ten years and that China exported 85.64 million tonnes of steel from January to September. At the same time, construction steel is losing demand inside China.

CSP take: for importers and contractors in Saudi Arabia that buy Chinese sections, there is no duty yet, but contracts for delivery in the coming months now carry the risk of an anti-dumping duty whose size will only come out of the investigation. For Chinese mills and traders, the 15-day deadline is the first step: in anti-dumping cases, exporters that neither register nor answer the questionnaire usually get a rate based on ‘best information available’, generally higher. This reading is ours, not GAFT’s.