The State Tax Administration (STA) announced on December 15 that China's central government avoided imposing new export duties on steel-related products in its latest import and export tax regulation.
As normal practice, Beijing would announce import and export tax adjustments around this time each year, and the new taxes would take effect on January 1 of next year.
In the STA's announcement, Beijing decided to retain the existing export duties on 104 items in its list in various categories, including plate and strip, as well as ferrous and non-ferrous metals such as pig iron, ferrochrome, steel scrap, and non-ferrous products such as aluminum bar.
However, it increased the export duties for two items, namely phosphorus and blister copper.
Wednesday's announcement is believed to mean that the 40% duty on steel scrap exports will continue to apply next year. On the other hand, no new duties will be imposed on steel product exports – making the FTA announcement a long-awaited possibility and closely followed by Chinese steel industry participants.
In the announcement, regarding the two commodities whose taxes would be increased, the central government decided to remove them "to promote industrial transformation and improvement and high-quality development of related industries". The tax on blister copper will be increased from 15% to 30% from the beginning of next year.
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