The US Department of Commerce has announced three preliminary affirmative circumvention rulings involving exports of steel products from Vietnam. The circumvention rulings cover certain hot dipped galvanized (HDG) and cold rolled coil (CRC) products.
Customs officials have been directed to start collecting cash deposit rates that are, in some cases, as high as 456.23 percent, “depending on the origin of the substrate and the type of steel product exported to the United States.”
Shipments of HDG coil from Vietnam to the United States increased from $220 million (in the 40-month period of September 2013 until preliminary duties imposed on South Korean and Taiwanese products in December 2015) to $950 million (40-month period from imposition of preliminary duties in December 2015 until April 2019), which is an increase of 331.9 percent.
Additionally, CRC shipments from Vietnam to the United States increased from $49 million (in the 38-month period of January 2013 until preliminary duties imposed on South Korean and Taiwanese products in February 2016) to $498 million (38-month period from imposition of preliminary duties in March 2016 until April 2019), which is an increase of 916.4 percent.
The inquiries were conducted pursuant to requests from U.S. domestic producers of HDG and CRC, including Steel Dynamics, Inc. (IN), California Steel Industries (CA), AK Steel Corporation (OH), ArcelorMittal USA LLC (IN), Nucor Corporation (NC), and United States Steel Corporation (PA).