Six major US steel producers – United States Steel Corporation, Nucor Corporation, Steel Dynamics, Inc., ArcelorMittal USA, AK Steel Corporation and California Steel Industries – Wednesday filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions charging that unfairly traded imports of corrosion-resistant steel from China, India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan are causing material injury to the domestic industry and that significant subsidies have been provided to producers by the governments of those countries. The petitions were filed concurrently with the United States Department of Commerce (“Commerce Department”) and the United States International Trade Commission (“USITC”). The five countries covered by the antidumping petitions and the dumping margins alleged by the domestic industry are as follows:
China: 120.20 percent
India: 71.09 percent
Italy: 123.76 percent
South Korea: 80.06 percent
Taiwan: 84.40 percent
The petitions also allege that the foreign producers benefit from numerous countervailable subsidies. The petitions identify 48 different subsidy programs in China, 88 subsidy programs in India, 12 subsidy programs in Italy, 43 subsidy programs in Korea and 22 subsidy programs in Taiwan.
The petitions were filed in response to large and increasing volumes of low-priced imports of corrosion-resistant steel from the subject countries over the past three years that have injured US producers. Imports of corrosion-resistant steel from the five countries targeted by this case increased by 85 percent between 2012 and 2014, from 1.5 million tons to 2.75 million tons. Subject imports increased further in the first quarter of 2015 from 600,000 to 800,000 tons. In 2014, the five countries exported more than $2.2 billion of corrosion-resistant steel to the United States.
The petitions allege that “producers in the subject countries have injured the domestic industry by selling their products at unfairly low prices that significantly undercut the prices of US producers. As a result, subject imports have captured an increasing share of the US market at the direct expense of the US industry. During a period of robust and increasing US demand for corrosion-resistant steel, US producers have suffered significant declines in production, shipments and profits. Foreign producers in the countries covered by the petitions have massive capacity to produce corrosion-resistant steel and have been exporting large and increasing volumes of unfairly low-priced and subsidized corrosion-resistant steel to the United States. The price declines that US producers have suffered are likely to continue if duties are not imposed to level the playing field.”