The unfair influx of cheap Chinese steel continues to be a problem for Latin America’s steelmakers. As China pushes out shipments of steel, countries of the region are stepping up protections for their local industries. More recently, Colombia joined its neighbors, raising tariffs on Chinese steel in an effort to assuage its producers and lessen the impact on local jobs.
In late February, Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MCIT) initiated an anti-dumping investigation on imported welded pipes from China, used for cable protection, at the request of Colombian Company Tenaris Tubocaribe Ltda. A month prior, the MCIT imposed anti-dumping tariffs on galvanized and galvalume steel sheets (coated materials) from China at 41.74 percent. According to the official Gazette, the measure is valid for a period of five years.
Colombia’s steelmakers have been denouncing for months the unfair competition, predatory prices, and low quality of steel coming from China, asking the MCIT to take anti-dumping measures. In October, Colombia imposed an additional 30 percent tariff on wire rods from China, boosting the tariff to 35 percent, the maximum allowed under the World Trade Organization.
“A technical investigation was carried out that showed that those imports were causing damage to the national industry,” Commerce Minister Luis Carlos Reyes said then via X. “We seek to ensure balanced and fair competition.”
China saw some 29 major steel trade cases filed against it between 2024 and February 2025, or 14 cases more that during 2020-2023, global financial data company S&P Global reported, based on data from the China Iron & Steel Association. S&P Global expects trade barriers against Chinese steel to start impacting exports by late 2025.
According to Juan Manuel Sánchez, president of the board of directors of coal producers association of Colombia, Fenalcarbón, China’s steel dumping has had quite an impact on Colombia.
“China produces in just 13 hours what Colombia produces in a whole year,” he said during the MetCoke World Summit 2024 in Colombia, an international conference for the coke, coal, and steel industries, Colombian business news site Portafolio reported.
For Carlos Cante, president of Fenalcarbón, China has become a global threat to the steel industry, producing more than a billion tons of crude steel in 2023 and a similar amount in 2024, Portafolio reported.
Regional threat
While Brazil increased protections for its steel industry from the influx of Chinese cheap imports by imposing tariffs on different types of products, the issue is still very much impacting the South American nation, Bloomberg reported.
“Brazil is still the world’s backyard for China to send materials,” Executive director of Brazil’s National Steel Company (CSN) Luis Fernando Martínez told Bloomberg in early March. Brazil currently has 53 anti-dumping measures in force against China, going far beyond just steel, Brazil’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry told Diálogo in a statement.
In early March, Mexico announced it was launching an investigation into China’s dumping of hot-rolled steel. The Ministry of Economy said in a statement that the unfair prices are threatening to damage the national industry. That same month in 2024, Mexico imposed tariffs of up to 91 percent on steel imports from China, more specifically threaded steel rods, Mexican platform LatinUS reported.
In Peru, the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) launched several investigations into China’s dumping of hot-rolled carbon steel pipes, stainless steel sinks, and steel wire rod. Indecopi launched the investigations following requests from local manufacturers who argued that China’s dumping severely harm the national industry.
According to Argentine news site Infobae, so far this year, Indecopi has initiated investigations into five products from China for dumping practices. In one case, provisional measures are already in place, “which shows that the organization is taking action to address these issues.”
Robert Venero, an attorney from law firm Diez Canseco, which represents three of the Peruvian steel companies that filed the dumping complaint, stressed that China’s practice is a strategy of unfair competition to destroy local industry.
“When domestic companies cannot compete with dumping prices, they are forced to close their production lines, generating a massive loss of jobs and a decrease in the country’s productive capacity,” Venero told Infobae.
