Jan 29 The European Union will impose duties on imports from China of steel bar used to reinforce concrete while its investigation into dumping by Chinese producers continues, the EU's official journal said on Friday.

The bloc will impose provisional duties of between 9.2 and 13.0 percent on imports of high fatigue performance (HFP) steel reinforcement bars.

Steel industry representatives in the UK, where the vast majority of Chinese 'rebar' sales are directed, slammed the move.

"The Commission's decision ... clearly shows that the scale of the crisis affecting the European steel sector has not yet fully registered with Brussels," said Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel.

"The Commission's investigation has highlighted dumping margins in excess of a whopping 60 percent. Unless these provisional duties are increased, we will see further job losses," he added.

Bankruptcies and capacity closures have picked up pace in the UK industry, where some 5,000 jobs have been lost in the past four month - equivalent to about a quarter of the workforce.

Steelmakers pin much of the blame on China, which produced half the world's 1.6 billion tonnes of steel last year and exported a record 112 million tonnes of its excess output.

According to UK Steel, China accounts for more than 45 percent of the UK rebar market, up from zero four years ago.

Kathleen Walker Shaw, European Officer for UK union GMB, said: "The UK Government bears a lot of responsibility for this failure of the EU to act by placing a higher priority on not upsetting the Chinese government than on protecting UK steel jobs."

Several EU member states including the UK are leaning towards granting China market economy status after December 2016, a move that would make it harder for Europe to impose anti-dumping duties on cheap Chinese goods.

European steel association Eurofer says that status would put most of the 330,00 EU steel sector jobs at risk.

The European Commission launched its anti-dumping investigation into imports of HFP rebar from China last April following a complaint from Eurofer.

EU rebar producers include Spain's Celsa Group, Italy's Gruppo Riva SpA and ArcelorMittal.

Source: Reuters