During his presentation at SteelOrbis’ sixth annual Rebar & Wire Rod conference in Las Vegas February 2, Matthew Nolan of Arent Fox pointed out that there were around 400 trade legislation measures in place in 2010, rising to over 1,600 in 2014. The US is the second-biggest trade case initiator, with metals making up about 35 percent of all cases in the last year or so. But Nolan isn’t convinced this is helping the US steel industry, especially when US producers pour so much time and energy into cases from which they probably won’t benefit.
Nolan used the recent rebar trade case between the US and Turkey as an example, noting that it was prosecuted more vigorously than most steel cases, and yet the result was zero percent AD margins and CVD margins too low to make any impact on prices. The subsides, Nolan explained later in the Q&A session, did not arise from Turkish mills getting free or discounted energy from the government, as US petitioners alleged—some Turkish mills have their own power plant to run their facilities, and because energy is a close second in input costs behind raw materials, the savings are much more substantial than they would be if a US mill did the same. Either way, Nolan said, the insistence of US producers that there is no legal way Turkish mills can sell rebar as cheaply as they do, is part of a “silly season” trend in trade law that is obscuring the validity of legitimate grievances.