On May 4, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) announced the court-ordered remand of its five-year review determinations in the countervailing duty and antidumping investigations concerning hot rolled steel products from Kazakhstan, Romania, and South Africa.
In October 2007, the ITC determined that revocation of the countervailing duty order on hot rolled steel products from South Africa and that revocation of the antidumping duty orders on hot rolled steel products from Kazakhstan, Romania, and South Africa would not be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to an industry in the US within a reasonably foreseeable time. The ITC's determinations were appealed to the Court of International Trade (CIT).
On March 9, 2009, the CIT issued a decision remanding the matter to the ITC for further proceedings. In its opinion, the CIT affirmed the ITC's cumulation analysis, but found that the commission's conclusions concerning the likely subject import volume, likely price effects, and likely impact were unsupported by substantial evidence. The CIT instructed the ITC on remand to address the following six issues:
(1) to reevaluate its finding that the ArcelorMittal companies and/or Mittal USA would limit subject imports from the Mittal Companies;
(2) to reassess and further explain the basis for its findings that significant imports in any region of the country are likely to have a disruptive impact on the overall US market;
(3) to reassess and further explain the behavior of ArcelorMittal and its predecessor, the Ispat organization, with respect to their business practices in exporting to countries in which they maintain production facilities;
(4) to reassess and further explain certain evidence the CIT perceived contrary to the ITC's conclusion on the likely subject import volume;
(5) to reassess likely price effects in accordance with its revised volume determination and;
(6) to reassess its likely impact analysis in accordance with its revised volume and price effects determinations, and to explain the poor performance of the domestic industry in the latter portion of the period of review.
Accordingly, the ITC has reopened the record to obtain additional information pertinent to the issues on which the CIT has directed a remand. The ITC seeks additional information regarding the operations of ArcelorMittal, its affiliates including Mittal USA, and its predecessor companies including Ispat and Ispat Inland.
Specifically, the ITC seeks information concerning Mittal's policies and practices with respect to Mittal's evaluation of the economic incentives of, and the possible market disruption of, shipping hot rolled steel products produced by one Mittal company to the market in which another Mittal company is located, including the European Union and the United States.