CAPE TOWN: US steel makers have included SA in a catch-all request for protection against imports of cut-to-length carbon and alloy steel plate, which has been filed with the US International Trade Commission.
Seeking antidumping duties on the product line are three companies, ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor and SSAB Enterprises. SA is one of 12 countries in the firing line. Its share of US imports between March 2015 and February this year was a tiny 1.65%, too small by itself to be targeted directly under US antidumping rules.
However, in their April 8 filing, the petitioners argue that imports from all sources should be “cumulated” — treated as one, regardless of origin — because the product is a fungible commodity marketed through common channels.
The US firms said they were suffering “material injury” from the doubling of “dumped and subsidised imports”. The suppliers with the largest import shares are Korea (20%), Germany (18%), France (12%) and China (7%).
US imports of SA cut-to-length steel under the tariff lines specified in the petition were valued at $21.8m in 2014 and $11.1m last year, according to US census data. In March, the US imposed antidumping duties on cold-rolled steel from China and six other countries. The duty slapped on China’s exports was 266%.
Petitioner Nucor’s share price has risen 19% since the start of the year, helped in part by protection from imports. US Steel, which is not part of the latest case, has seen its stock jump more than 100% since the end of February, when the cold-rolled duties went into effect.
The US International Trade Commission will hold a preliminary hearing on the cut-to-length case on April 29. The Department of Trade and Industry said on Thursday the initiative by the three US companies to protect their market was similar to that taken by a swathe of countries due to “the global steel glut, huge installed capacity and inventory in China and the very significant fall in aggregate demand in steel flowing from the global economic recession”.
The department’s deputy director-general Garth Strachan said they were all trying to protect their domestic markets against a flood of cheap Chinese steel imports. The department has signed off on nine tariff increases for imported steel products and is processing a 10th for hot-rolled coil.
