The European Union will impose punitive anti-dumping duties from Thursday on imports of stainless steel cold-rolled sheet from China and Taiwan, according to a notice on Wednesday in the EU's Official Journal.

The EU will apply tariffs of about 24-25 per cent for imports from China and of about 11-12 per cent for Taiwanese product, following a complaint lodged in May 2014 by the European steel producers association, Eurofer.

Eurofer has said China and Taiwan shipped €620 million ($677.7 million) of cold-rolled stainless steel into the EU in 2013, some 17 per cent of the overall market, and were guilty of dumping, or selling at unfairly low prices.

The duties, set by the European Commission, are provisional pending the outcome of an investigation due to end in September.

The figures are in line with those reported exclusively by Reuters this month.

The import tariff has been set at 24.3 per cent for China's Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Co and Tianjin Tisco & TPCO Stainless Steel Company, 24.5 per cent for other cooperating companies and at 25.2 per cent for China's Baosteel Stainless Steel Company, Ningbo Baoxin Stainless Steel Company and other Chinese companies.

For Taiwanese manufacturers, the rates are 10.9 per cent for Tang Eng Iron Works Company, Yieh United Steel Corp (Yusco) and cooperating companies and at 12.0 per cent for Chia Far Industrial Factory Co and other companies that did not cooperate with the EU investigation.

A parallel investigation into alleged illegal subsidies for Chinese producers is also due to end in September.

Europe's largest stainless steel producers are Acerinox , Outokumpu and Aperam . - Reuters