The UK Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has recommended duties on Russian welded tubes and pipes be revoked, while 90.6pc duties on China and 38.1pc duties on Belarus should be extended for five years.

The recommendation followed the TRA's transition review into the measures, and has been upheld by the Secretary of State for International Trade, meaning they will now take effect.

Russian duties will lapse effective 30 January 2021, 30 days after the date the measure transitions from the EU into UK law, while Chinese and Belarusian duties will be extended for five years from that date.

Russia's Severstal was the only overseas producer to co-operate with the review, and the TRA determined it was unlikely dumping would occur from Severstal, or other Russian mills, if the measures lapsed.

The TRA also recommended that goods within the CN code 7306 30 72 — non-threaded welded tube/pipe plated or coated with zinc — should be excluded from the measures as Tata Steel UK does not produce such material.

The UK welded tube and pipe market is around 100,000-150,000 t/yr, with as much as half of this demand met by domestic producers.

UK Steel said it welcomed the Secretary of State's decision to accept the TRA's recommendations, but it has "concerns about the methodology and process used in trade remedies investigations".